


The Voyage of the Daystar

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Kidnapping, Mutual Pining, Oh No They're Hot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:41:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24355234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Seven years after they said goodbye, Anakin and Ahsoka find each other again.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 38
Kudos: 167
Collections: Fandom 5K 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/gifts).



The trail went cold on Metalorn. Ahsoka had spent the last four months following rumors, stories, and sometimes a single thread of implication. The Separatists may have fallen, their cause vanished into a sudden mist with the death of the Chancellor, but she couldn't believe their leaders were gone.

A few months after she'd walked away from the Jedi Order, Chancellor Palpatine had been killed, and his position temporarily taken by the Order themselves. The Republic had roiled in confusion and opposition until a new Chancellor had been installed soon after, but the Separatist threat had ended within hours of Palpatine's fall, underscoring Master Windu's claim that Palpatine had orchestrated the whole war to seize more power.

She told herself that a military force which had wreaked havoc across the galaxy couldn't very well disappear overnight while leaving its supporting worlds to flail in its wake until they were enfolded again in the Republic's unforgiving embrace. In the middle of the night, as she tried to sleep, she tried to tell herself this latest foray for information was more than some desperate bargain with herself that the war had been worth the cost, that she wasn't chasing shadows to justify a conflict which had taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Their silence was a feint, meant to lull the Republic into a long complacency.

But Metalorn turned up nothing, and after seven years of searching, Ahsoka had run out of clues and hope in one last location.

The Techno Union maintained the bare minimum of living quarters up top for their workers, and this was where she paused now, idling over a drink she didn't want as she observed a group of miners on rare holiday in what passed for fresh air above the great city-factories below them. The work hadn't changed for them with the changing power balance in the wider galaxy. She wondered if anything would.

"You're new," said a worker, sitting next to her without invitation. A Duros, dark blue skin and reeking of the cheap ale on supply here. "One of Spivy's new girls?"

"Sorry, no." On instinct she sent a thought at him to push him away. Nothing to see here.

The man wouldn't be budged. "How much for two hours?"

Ahsoka stilled herself. Spivy was the owner of this establishment. She'd come here to talk to him, but he'd known nothing. If he was keeping women to provide companionship and services for the rough miners up on leave, she might have to stay a little longer and see what she could do about ending that practice.

She turned to the Duros with an indulgent smile. "I'm not working for Spivy. Does he pay well?"

His hand found her arm. "I pay pretty well."

Ahsoka tossed him into the far wall.

She had to learn not to get involved in bar fights. She always won, but it wasn't worth it, not when what passed for the local authorities showed up, not when the miners all swore in front of their own friends that Ahsoka had instigated everything. This wasn't the first drunk tank she'd found herself in over the last few years, no matter how cold stone sober she'd been every time.

Ahsoka sat down on the slab that passed for a bed. 'Drunk and disorderly' was an easy charge to beat. The local authorities were happy to let her stew overnight in exchange for a payout in the morning. Her worst problems were with the guards who wanted more, because that always left a mess when she was finished beating them up.

"I have got to get better at this," she told herself. The only other occupant of the cell groaned and curled against the light.

She felt it then, a presence in the Force, familiar and stupendously out of place here in this temporary cell on this out of the way planet. Ahsoka made her way to the other cold slab, a sudden fear and strange eagerness blending inside her as she reached for the other's shoulder, shaking him awake.

"Anakin?"

She sensed him wake in an instant. She'd assumed her cellmate was sleeping off the effects of overindulgence, but he flowed to his feet, ready in a defensive posture until his eyes registered who he was seeing.

His hands, drawn into fists, dropped to his side as he stared at her, astonished. "Ahsoka?"

Almost simultaneously, they both said, "What are you doing here?" Anakin's wary face broke into a smile. Ahsoka felt a wry smirk cross her own lips. He stepped forward, maybe to take her hand, maybe to embrace her, she didn't know which. She took a step away on instinct, and read the hurt flash across his expression before he buried it under a false calm.

"It's been a long time," he said. "Of the places I hoped I might run into you, jail wasn't high on the list."

She examined the word 'hoped' for a moment, then set it aside. "I got into a fight. When the authorities came, it was simpler to let them bring me in than fight them as well." She gazed around them, stopping herself from wrinkling her nose at the sad, ground-in smells which always pervaded these forlorn cells. "Besides, I've found I can do more good among the people who wind up in places like this than I could back in the halls of power on Coruscant. Here, they need a hand that can help, or an ear to listen. Someone to care about their problems. I can do that."

The words came out of a place she hadn't considered in some time. When she'd first walked away from the Order, from everything, she'd found herself engaged in arguments inside her own mind with the people she'd left behind. Anakin had featured prominently, as had Obi-Wan, Yoda, and so many others, while Ahsoka had wasted hours inside her head justifying her decisions until she'd finally accepted those decisions for herself. This was an argument she'd had with him before, and he didn't know it.

The real Anakin stood before her now, listening. He didn't reply, not with the counterarguments her own thoughts had provided, and not with the praise her ego had wished for in the same fantasies. He broke away from his silent appraisal to walk over to the force field over their cell. The switch to deactivate the field was on the other side. He closed his eyes.

There was a click as the switch moved. The force field dropped. He turned to her. "Ready?"

For a moment, she was. They'd walk out of here together, and fight the few night-duty watchmen in the front, and go free into the hell night of this ruined world. And then....

Ahsoka sat on her hard bunk. "I'm here until morning. You go."

Again a quick wave of hurt passed across his features. He sighed. Then he waved his hand. The force field hummed back to life as he went to his own slab. "Fine. We'll stay."

"You don't have to stay, Anakin."

"I know I don't. In the morning, the head guard is going to charge us fifty credits apiece as a fine, and he's going to shove us out the door. When he finds out I don't have fifty credits, that will be another fight." He lay down again, shutting his eyes against the glare of the overhead lamp.

"Does he have your lightsaber?"

"No, it's back on my ship. I don't carry it with me these days. He's got my blaster."

A wealth of information was contained in those few words. She sifted through them, wondering at the implications. "How did you find me?"

He went quiet for a long time. "I didn't know you were here." Now that she was paying more attention, she noticed a slur to his words, and slowness to his movements. Her initial impression had been accurate. She'd walked in here sober. Anakin hadn't.

"But you were looking for me."

"I was. The last word I had of you was on Thabeska."

She hadn't thought about that world in a long time. "I was there six years ago."

"So I discovered. And no one I spoke to knew where you'd gone. There was nowhere to look for you, so I stopped looking." He turned his head and opened his eyes. "And here you are in jail."

"As are you." She drew her knees up against her like a child until he threw his arm over his eyes to block out the light again. She'd been fine on her own, and now having her former master in front of her made her feel small. "How did you wind up in here without your lightsaber?"

"That's a very long story, the end of which involves getting kicked out of a cantina on my ear a few hours ago."

"You could handle yourself in that situation, with or without a weapon."

"I could. One nice thing about spending the night in jail is knowing you've got a place to sleep and a meal coming in the morning, as long as you're not picky about the cuisine."

Again his words were full of import. He'd spent a number of nights in places like this, just as she had, and with the same resignation to causing as few ripples as possible when either one could easily throw their potential captors into the nearest wall with a thought. Jedi Knights weren't famously known for sleeping in drunk tanks. He'd been looking for her, at least until he'd run out of clues. He didn't carry his lightsaber with him. She placed these pieces side by side and formed a picture.

"How long ago did you leave the Order?"

He rolled over to face her. "The day Chancellor Palpatine died."

Bare months after she'd walked out, then. "And you've spent all this time getting kicked out of bars?"

"No." He sighed. "This figures. I spend years thinking to myself what I'd say to you if I managed to find you, imagining how happy you'd be to see me," he said with forced jollity in the last few words. "And instead it's this." He waved his free arm at the jail cell.

Ahsoka had spent enough of her life next to him to recognize one of Anakin's signature self-pity attacks hitting. "How did you imagine it would go?"

"What?"

"Tracking me down."

"Oh, I had a lot of fantasies about that. I wanted to tell you that you were right to leave. I wanted to say I was sorry for everything that had happened to you to make you go. I wanted to tell you how much I missed you. Then you'd say leaving the Order was the best decision you ever made, and that you were glad I'd come to the same decision. You'd say you don't blame me for what happened, and that you missed me, too."

"And then what?"

"Then we'd go off fighting the bad guys side by side again like in the old days and everything would be all right again." He left out a snort. "It wasn't a very complicated fantasy."

She wasn't sure that she owed him anything here and now. He'd saved her life and stood beside her as the rest of her friends had abandoned her, but she had done the same for him when she could. There were no debts left between them for her to repay, not here in this cell that reeked of desperation and sorrow, and this was important. She didn't want what she told him to be out of obligation.

"It sounds like a nice fantasy." With a sigh, she got up from her hard slab and went to the other. "Budge up," she told him, and let him make room before she lay her head down beside his, pressing against him for the slight warmth this offered. His eyes were open again, but he didn't reach for her. She'd pulled away when he'd tried last time, and his shoulders twitched with the effort of respecting her wishes. It nearly broke her heart. So few people in her life had cared for her as completely and genuinely as Anakin Skywalker.

"I missed you too," she said, closing her eyes. "I wondered what you were doing. I never saw you on the holofeeds, and I never saw news that you'd been killed. I didn't know where you were. I just knew you were out there, alive, somewhere."

She felt him nod. "I felt you were alive," he said. "I'm glad I found you."

"Me too."

* * *

The trail went cold on Metalorn. He'd followed his last lead to a run-down cantina here on the ruined surface of this awful world, and spent half the evening plying his target with cup after cup of the local brew. Anakin had grown used to darkened bars and disreputable backrooms as he'd made his way along his self-administered quest. Informants didn't travel the high, well-lit roads of the wealthy and privileged, which was just as well. He'd never enjoyed those paths, either.

This informant had no information, which Anakin had uncovered after buying the last drink he could for his would-be friend, barely sipping his own all night.

Light stabbed into his eyes, and his head ached where it rested on a hard slab. He'd been rolled into a jail cell, not his first and unlikely his last. Whatever had been in the drink had been a potent concoction. Even the little he'd tasted had dulled his senses.

His mouth quirked into a smile even against the blinding light of the overhead lamp. Whatever the drug had been, he'd gotten a good dream out of it. Ahsoka had come to him in his cell, and they'd talked. He hadn't told her everything, had barely told her anything, so happy he'd been to have found her at last. Then the dream had morphed and changed, and they were back on Coruscant, back in the Temple on one of the high towers, and her mouth had been hot on him, and wet, and her fangs had scraped over his sensitive skin in a sweet pain-pleasure mix. Not the first time he'd had that dream, or one like it, but the first it had included a talk in a jail cell first.

"On your feet," said a voice. Anakin rolled to sitting and stood, his muscles under the control of his mind even if his more automatic functions were still hazy. The guard, a Devaronian, had a small tray ready with the jail breakfast stew in what might have once been a clean bowl, with a thin folded slice of what turned out to be a very dry local bread. The force field dropped. Anakin knew better than to step through.

"Thanks," said Anakin, smiling around the bowl as he sipped. The taste wasn't as bad as the food in some places had been, and if he recalled last night, he hadn't given his captors any reason to season it further with their own spittle, or worse.

The guard gave off the impression of someone who'd been tending these same narrow cells for the last twenty years, not someone here to bully around his charges but someone here to draw his pay with a steady job. Not nice -- jailers who were nice didn't live long -- but not overtly cruel. Anakin assessed this in a moment as the man said, "You're smiling a lot for someone who woke up in the cooler."

"I had a nice dream about a beautiful woman."

"Save it," said the guard, and took back the empty bowl. "You ready to go? Penitent about your crime and all that?" He led the way towards the front office.

"Sure. I intend never to go back to that cantina." Anakin spread his hands, then raised the right one. "Unfortunately, I can't pay my fine." He reached for the Force to convince the guard to let him go.

Before he could, the guard said, "Your fine was paid for you. See that you don't come back." He gestured to the door.

Anakin couldn't imagine his contact would have paid his fine, but he didn't know anyone else here. Rather than argue, he nodded a polite thanks and stepped outside into the choking, dusty daylight.

Ahsoka Tano sat on a bench outside. She looked up at him in the dirty light. "Good morning. You owe me breakfast."

He blinked, and blinked again. She was still there. "That wasn't a dream."

"Meeting up last night? No. Are you sober now?"

"I was sober then. I think my contact drugged me."

She examined his face, wary. He'd woken up from what he'd believed had been a sweet dream of her coming to him in this dark place. She had, but she didn't seem as happy about it as he was. Worried now, and suddenly uneasy about the rest of his dream, he asked, "Did I say or do anything weird last night?"

"No weirder than usual," she said, and stood, stepping up beside him as they began to walk away from the squat jailhouse together. "Breakfast," she reminded him.

"They fed us in there." He glanced at her. "But you couldn't eat it."

"I could and did to stop the argument, and you could spend your day with a stomach full of grass for all the good it would do." She sighed. "Let's find a place we haven't been kicked out of. I'll buy, since you're broke."

He nudged her shoulder and moved off. "I have food on my ship. This way."

She paused, then followed him. "Why are you here?"

"Long story."

"You said. I have time. You were meeting a contact?"

He didn't answer. They made their way to the shipyards. His ship was docked between two larger vessels, crouching between them like a timid nerf calf between two akk dogs. He entered the code to open the hatch. With only a brief hesitation, she followed him inside, taking in the small living area and his projects strewn around every surface. Not messy, he thought to himself. Not really messy. Absently he moved some parts he'd been tinkering with off the second tiny seat, and pushed a few more things he'd been working on over to one side.

"You live here?" she asked, her eyes finding the open door to his cabin.

"It's cozy," he said, going into his room and dumping everything into an already overstuffed crate. He shut the door then wiped his hands before digging into the food storage. "Here." He handed Ahsoka a rations packet.

She looked at the label, noting the animal protein. "Thank you."

"I always buy these. I got into the habit of stocking them when you were around and I guess I never stopped."

This earned him a speculative glance as she opened the meal and started to eat. "Lucky me."

He took the other seat. "Yes, I was meeting a contact here. I got word the Techno Union might be covering for Separatist activity. I came to meet someone who I was told had information. He didn't."

"The Separatists are gone." Her voice was clipped but her eyes held a challenge.

He could play it off. He could say he had taken a job for their former friends and colleagues and was simply gathering information to pass along. He could lie. But he'd hated the lies he had told her when they were younger, and he didn't want to poison their new meeting with untruths.

"I don't believe they are. I can't believe they just vanished into the air, even if the Chancellor was secretly controlling them. It doesn't make sense." He glanced at her. "I know it sounds crazy."

"Spivy didn't know anything, either. I heard the same rumor with his name attached. I had to come see."

He sat back in his chair. The padding was starting to wear, placing it at that edge between broken in and comfortable, and broken down and needing to be replaced. So much of this little ship was the same. He'd started to feel like he was chasing smoke, bouncing off the bulkheads and deck plates of this small, decaying vessel until his own thoughts echoed rumors back to him. He'd worried he was starting to crack.

But Ahsoka had been on the same mission.

"You've been looking for them, too."

"I don't know what I've been looking for." She finished her meal, folding the empty packet with absent, nervous fingers. "I want to believe the war was worth it, that it was real and not just some twelve-dimensional chess game Palpatine played against himself. If the Separatist command are still out there, then maybe we were right to fight. Maybe the people who died didn't die for nothing."

There was an edge to her words, a tight note that straddled the line between faith and despair. Anakin wasn't the only one who worried for his own sanity.

"I know what you mean." He reached for her hand, noticing her jump at his touch before she settled into it, turning her hand and squeezing back.

"I can show you what information I've gathered. We might have different traces to follow when we look at it all together."

He nodded. "That'd be great. Do you have the data back on your ship?"

"No. I've been booking passage from planet to planet. I've got my things in the room I've hired here, but I guess I don't need to stay on Metalorn any longer."

A brilliant idea came to him. "I can take you where you want to go after this. I do a lot of ferrying work to earn credits. You can be my next passenger."

"I don't even know where I'm going next." 

"All the more reason to go there with a friend."

Ahsoka watched him warily. "Anakin...."

Her absence and caution finally got through, and the answer as to why hurt worse than he would have expected. "You don't think we're friends any longer."

"It's been years. It is good to see you again but I don't want to go back to where we were. I've changed." She looked around the dingy ship. "So have you. We don't fit together that way now. We can't."

Sharp words jumped into his mouth, and with an effort, he swallowed them. She was being honest with him, like she always had been. He owed her many things, and least of all he owed her the respect of listening to what she was trying to tell him.

"You're right. We can't be the people we were, but we both left those people behind for a reason. I was your teacher."

"You were my brother and my best friend." She took a breath. "I had to walk away from you as much as I had to walk away from the Jedi or I'd never know who I was."

"And you need more time."

She shook her head. "I'm not sure what I need now." She looked at his face, and he saw a spark of the old humor he'd always liked. "A friend would be nice."

"Let me get you to your next destination. And if you need to go on your own after that, I won't try to change your mind. I will give you my contact codes, though. We ought to stay in touch. I've missed you."

"I know. You told me last night."

A guilty chill moved down his neck. "What all did I say? I was drugged."

"Nothing bad. Why? What aren't you telling me this time?" The challenge in her tone was as plain as her words, and he knew they were due a long conversation.

"I'll tell you everything after you get back with your things. Let me stay here and get the _Daystar_ ready for launch."


	2. Chapter 2

Ahsoka took a deep breath of air as soon as she stepped outside, and regretted it. The constant dust in the atmosphere was scrubbed in the cities below for the sake of the miners. The people who lived up here in the light had it worse. Coughing, she made her way back to the squat apartment block where she'd paid for a room not much bigger than a closet. Not that she'd even slept there last night.

She'd slept in worse places than jail cells, and with worse bedfellows. It wasn't the first time the two of them had crawled into the same bunk to conserve heat and comfort, the simple presence of the other a balm against the hard ground of whatever battlefield they'd camped on that time. It also wasn't the first time she'd drifted into a dream about her former master, one of her secret and shameful dreams when she'd been younger, and more wistful now that she was grown. Instead of a stone hard slab in a cell, they'd been on some unknown world, humid and buzzing with pleasantly-humming insect wings. lush with tall purple grasses, and in the distance, spires reaching to the sky. He'd laid her down among sweet-smelling flowers, and tasted her between her legs until she'd shivered with need, and he'd entered her swiftly, perfectly, and her soul had sung out with joy.

Waking beside him, she'd felt a quick, hot embarrassment, and she'd convinced the guard to free her before he woke and could see the fading guilt on her face. Out in the dusty day, her head had settled. It had only been a dream, one of many, and easily forgotten in the harsh light of a reality which contained him snoring the last of the morning away in jail.

Anakin had always worn an air of mystery around him. He'd kept secrets from her, some of which she'd sorted out on her own. The Council had kept him at arm's length, encouraging him to lead his way into battles, whispering legends about a Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force, but also pushing him away from their inner dialogue with a mistrust that Ahsoka had never understood. He was strange, and while a Jedi should let go of fear, she had always been under the impression the High Council was afraid of him. Ahsoka wasn't, and could never imagine being frightened. Anakin had his moments, sure, but she'd never doubted he would step in front of a blaster bolt for her without even thinking about it.

And now he was here, following the same gossamer trail she did out of the same desperate hope all their losses and sorrows had not been in vain. He was separated from the Council and the Order, and they weren't the only ones he was clearly no longer close to. Why?

Mysteries could be fun, but she wasn't in the mood for this one.

She made her way into the building, entering the access code to her room. A quick glance confirmed nothing had been taken. A longer glance confirmed her possessions had been rifled through by someone, probably the landlord. She'd expected as much and had hidden the important items, which she now retrieved.

Seven years on her own, and everything that mattered still fit inside a knapsack. Most Togruta women her age had already settled down. Ahsoka felt anything but settled.

Still unhappy about last night's events, she went back to Spivy's place. The cook was already at work getting ready for the noontide meal, while Spivy lay on a cot in the back. He opened one of his four eyes and stared at her. "What do you want now?"

"I came for information."

"I told you already. I don't know anything about what the Techno Union wants to do and if I did, I wouldn't tell a Jedi."

"I'm not a Jedi, but I understand," she said, and reached into her pouch for credit strips. "This morning, it occurred to me that you might know someone who does and would."

A second eye opened, fixing on her hand. "I might."

"I only need a name."

"And I need a new ventilation hood for the stove," said the cook. Ahsoka gave him a second look, and the expression on Spivy's face as he glanced over. The cook was his husband.

"New or repaired?" she asked. "I happen to know the best mechanic in twelve systems is on world right now, and he'll do anything I ask."

"Repaired will do," Spivy said. "Get that working, and it might jog my memory."

Ahsoka gave them a curt nod before she stepped out, hurrying towards Anakin's ship. "I have a lead, but I need your help," she told him as soon as she boarded.

"I don't really do stoves," he replied after she explained.

"Do this one and we get our destination."

They returned to Spivy's place together. Anakin brought a set of tools and got to work while Ahsoka sat with Spivy. "You know people who know people. I could use an introduction."

"It costs a lot more than a ventilation hood for that," he said. "You get a name."

"And a planet?"

"A star system."

"It's a deal." She didn't have many other options.

Anakin found the broken part deep inside the hood's guts and bent a new one into shape to replace it. The hood hummed to life, quietly whisking away the heat and steam above the busy stove. Spivy's husband broke into a huge grin. "Thanks, friend. I've been after him for months to get that replaced."

"We don't have that kind of money."

Anakin said, "But you do have a working stove. I believe you owe Ahsoka a name."

Spivy handed her a small card with the information written in a spindly hand. "Thank you," said Ahsoka, reading and memorizing it before dropping the card into a pocket.

They returned to the ship soon after, Anakin in a better mood than before, Ahsoka pondering over the new piece of information to add to the pile. "You can have the guest cabin," he told her as they boarded. "I cleaned up after you left."

The ship did look neater now, the bits and trinkets swept into boxes and stored. The guest cabin had the stale smell of a room not used often and not privy to the air scrubber's turnover, but the bunk was clean and the blankets looked as though they'd been through a laundry cycle recently. He'd tried to make the place nice for her, and that thought touched her. Anakin wasn't quite sure how to act around her, but he was trying. She could try in return.

"My room looks great, thanks," she told him as she joined him in the cockpit. "You said you ferry passengers?"

"Sometimes. It's easy money." He set the launch sequence. "I do odd jobs here and there to keep fuel in the ship and food on the table."

"It's a nice ship," she said. "This is a Naboo design, isn't it?"

"It is." He lifted off, flying them up and away from the ruined surface of this planet. "The first ship I ever piloted out of atmosphere was from Naboo. I don't know if I ever told you. I accidentally stole a ship in the middle of my first battle back when I met Obi-Wan and his master."

"Accidentally?"

"I was told to stay where I was. It turned out where I was included a ship on autopilot. Anyway, I like ships from Naboo."

"Is that when you met Senator Amidala?"

"Same mission, yes." His voice went tight, but she'd already known more than she should have.

They'd broken into the upper atmosphere, stars glittering ahead of them. Out of habit, she looked through the navicomputer. "Here."

He set the course. The ship gave a tiny hitch as it jumped into hyperspace, washing them in blue.

"How is Padmé?"

He went quiet for a long time. "How much did you know?"

She sighed. "The two of you were having a romance. I think Obi-Wan knew, too, but he never said anything to me about it."

"He suspected. He didn't know until I told him. Padmé and I married right after the Battle of Geonosis."

A tremble went through her. The battle had occurred several weeks before they'd met. Anakin had been married to the beautiful, kind woman Ahsoka had always liked and looked up to, and he'd never said a word. And now he was here living on a ship, alone and far from the Core where she worked, and even farther from Naboo. "When's the last time you talked to her?"

"About six months ago." He looked at Ahsoka. "We exchange messages now and then. We're still friends. But she's busy with her work, and I don't like taking up her time."

She paid attention to all the words he wasn't saying under those. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not," he said, folding his hands. The black glove he wore over the metallic right hand was wearing thin, she noticed, the seams bulging in places. "I moved in with her after I left the Order. I thought we could be together and be happy for once. I thought that keeping our marriage a secret was what had caused all our troubles." He looked out into the cascading blue swirl, and a self-deprecating smile touched his lips. "It turned out keeping the secret was the main thing holding us together. We were a team when we were busy hiding ourselves away. When we weren't, we were just two people who didn't have much in common." He glanced at her. "I wanted to tell you. I should have told you. I'm sorry that I never did."

Another thing she'd wondered about when she'd realized what was going on, but if she'd never spoken her suspicions aloud to him, she had no intention of ever speaking her concerns. Instead she nodded as kindly as she could and looked around the ship again. "And the _Daystar_?"

"Some people exchange wedding gifts. Padmé and I exchanged divorce gifts. She gave me the ship, I asked Artoo and Threepio to stay with her. I miss them both a lot. Promise me you'll never tell her, but sometimes I think I contact her just to hear Threepio's voice again."

She couldn't help her smile. That was Anakin all around. "I bet they miss you, too."

"You know, I bet they do."

* * *

After their talk, Anakin found his shoulders more relaxed and his chest a little less tight when he spoke. Ahsoka had been the last person for him to confess to, and one of the people he'd worried about most for her reaction. The Jedi Council could storm at him, reprimand him, even banish him from the Order for his defiance (in reality they'd expressed some concern about his and Padmé's well-being but otherwise had wished him well and let him know the door was open if he changed his mind) but the thought of Ahsoka being angry with him, or disappointed, had haunted him more than he'd wanted to admit to himself.

Instead, she'd accepted his apology and understood more than he'd hoped. They'd stepped away from the pains of their pasts and slid into conversation of where each had been, her since she'd walked away and him from when he'd left Coruscant for good five years ago. In his mind, he saw their wandering paths like two fish, darting and jinking and tracing bio-luminescent lines across a great sea, slowly arcing towards each other.

"You were on Nar Kreeta? I was there last year."

"Two years ago," she said. "I was meeting a Trandoshan with some intel for me. I stayed about six months with a family there. They needed someone around who could tinker machinery back together, and that happened to be a skill set I've picked up." She gave him another smile. She'd been smiling more at him since they'd left Metalorn, much of her reticence melting away.

"Pity I never ran into them, or if I did, I didn't ask the right questions."

"Would you have followed me if you knew where I was?"

"I'd have given it strong consideration."

The trip to Handooine was only a few hours. His worries rose as they approached. She'd only agreed to one journey and already that journey was nearing its end.

"Any idea where we should land?" he asked her as they dropped into sublight. "There are settlements on the main planet."

"Spivy only gave me the system, but he seemed to think that was enough." She peered over his shoulder at the holoatlas that glowed over the small display. "Jelwick is the capitol, but Gwynhes City looks to be the largest settlement. I'll start there." She removed the card from her pocket. "I'm looking for someone named Lado Lisle."

He took them into atmosphere, feeling the hitch as they switched from artificial gravity to the planet's gravitational pull. His breath shortened in the vague disappointment he always felt re-entering atmosphere. Of the things he regretted leaving behind in his old life, he never once regretted choosing a life between the stars aboard his rundown but beloved ship. He was alive out there. On the ground, he was merely waiting for his next chance to fly.

He landed them smoothly at a small shipyard at the edge of the city. Ahsoka paid the dockmaster the fee without asking him, and she didn't argue as Anakin donned his own traveling cloak to match hers and followed her out into the streets. "I should see about picking up work while we're here," he said, scanning the faces surrounding them. Plenty of humans, but humans had spread out everywhere they could aeons ago. Not many droids, but a large enough mix of other organic species that Ahsoka shouldn't draw undue attention as they walked. He noticed her gathering appreciative looks, and that was strange. When they'd met, she hadn't been more than a young girl, but the woman she'd grown into was very attractive. People paid attention to her as they passed.

"Do you use an alias?" he asked. "In case they ask our names."

"I did for a while. You can call me Ahsoka. Do you want an alias?"

"I could, I suppose. What about Damo?"

She gave him a mischievous look. "I've always seen you as a Bon, or maybe a Kanwin."

"You know what, let's stick with Anakin. You'll remember it easier and I won't flinch every time you say it."

She chuckled, and to his surprise, took his hand. She stepped closer and said quietly, "Not to make a big deal of this, but it would be better if onlookers assume we're together right now."

"We are together." Ahsoka gave him a look. Anakin said, "You mean _together_ together? Why?"

"I don't mind beating unwanted suitors into the pavement, but it does put a crimp in my ability to blend in. Some of the strangers watching me are already wondering if I'm single, and several of them are wondering if I'm for sale." Her voice was light, but he knew her well enough to hear the bitterness underneath the placid tone. He'd been born someone else's property, and sold to pay off a bet. Ahsoka wouldn't have lived that way, except for that brief time they was undercover, but she was more aware than most of how precarious her own freedom could be on the wrong planet.

He squeezed her hand. "It's fine. I wouldn't let you go for less than twenty thousand credits."

"Anakin!"

He turned his head, raising his chin. "All right, fifty thousand." He caught her eye. "I was a slave, I'm allowed to joke about it."

"Your jokes have terrible timing," she said.

"Get used to married life."

Ahsoka made an unhappy noise in her throat as she glared at him, but he saw the amusement in her eyes, and she didn't let go of his hand.

* * *

The local government was run by a committee, and these kept their office in a tall, thin skyscraper towards the middle of the city. The protocol droid on duty at the front desk helpfully directed them to the several electronic forms needed to perform a search on the whereabouts of any individual citizen, assuming Lisle was a citizen.

"Thank you," she said, taking the datapad for the long process of filling it out. Anakin snatched the pad from her hands. "I need that."

"I know, dear," he said. "Why don't you rest a moment while I fill this out?" He had been playing up the obsequious husband role for the last hour, and Ahsoka found it equal parts infuriating and hilarious. She had seen him around Padmé enough times to get an idea of how he acted when he was really married. Even if they'd been determined to hide that fact, Anakin Skywalker was too much of what the younger padawans would have called a dork to keep up too much of a front. She knew he was kidding around with her now, and part of her was annoyed that instead of deflecting attention, he was drawing it. The rest of her thought he was amusing in his chosen role, and she found herself regretting they'd never tried this as one of their attempts at working undercover together. Missed opportunity, she thought to herself.

Anakin handed her the datapad. "Can you check to make sure I spelled everything okay, sweetie?"

"Sure, darling," she said, fighting back her laugh. She glanced at the document, but Anakin had taken the opportunity to slice neatly into the central computer, accessing everything they needed.

"You amaze me sometimes," she said, searching for Lisle's name. She found a mention in a tax record, though no permanent address. She scanned for more information, found nothing else, and handed it back. "You did fine."

"Need anything else?"

"No, you can submit the forms." They both turned to the protocol droid, who took back the datapad.

"Thank you," it said. "You will have a response within ten to twenty business days. Have a nice day."

"Thanks," said Ahsoka, and headed out towards the location mentioned in the tax record. Another cantina, another night ahead of her plying her contacts for information.

Anakin fell into step beside her. "Where are we going?"

"Are you coming with me?"

His face went still. "Unless you don't want me there."

"I'm not making that decision. You can join me if you want." She relented slightly, seeing the hurt he was trying to cover. "We're both on the same mission, and yes, I would be happier with you there."

"Then I'll join you."

They found the cantina after three false starts and got a table near the back. Ahsoka ordered them some food to go with the drinks they'd be nursing the rest of the night. She sat back and watched the patrons surge in and out on the evening winds. It was nice having Anakin there, not only for his company, which she found she'd missed even more than she'd let herself admit, but also for the way the other men in the cantina let their eyes slide off her again as soon as they saw him.

"No description?" he confirmed with her, and she shook her head. Lisle was a human name, she was almost sure, but humans came in all shapes, shades, and sizes, and that was assuming she was right on the species. The location was their best guess. This could wind up another dead end.

She was used to waiting, used to winnowing out the useful clues from the pointless noise, used to failure as part of her road to success. Anakin said he was on a similar mission, and his data had overlapped with hers enough to prove the story, but she knew him well. He didn't like waiting around, or missing connections, or sitting idle when he could be out doing something else. Stalking a cantina for a fortnight or more wasn't his kind of stakeout. Patience had never been his strongest trait.

But kindness was, she reminded herself, as he nudged their shared plate closer to her, the bites of meat sticky-sweet with a local sauce. "I'm going to go make friends," he said, and left to join a new group who'd gathered at the bar.

She waiting, picking at the meal and watching the faces as they came in. A bribe to the bartender hadn't turned up anything. If Lado Lisle was a patron here, he didn't know him by that name. They were pushing their luck, and it was coming up dry.

A Twi'lek woman slid into the seat opposite her. "Hello," she said in a breathy voice.

"Hello," Ahsoka replied.

"You're new here."

"I am." She considered mentioning her 'husband' and decided against it. "And you are?"

"I'm friends with Lado. Good friends."

Ahsoka tilted her head. "It's nice to meet you."

"You've been asking about him." The bartender hadn't been as ignorant as he'd claimed.

"I'd like to meet him too."

"Are you moving weapons or money?"

"I have money. I'm looking for information."

"If you have enough money, I can introduce you."

A note of worry played in her mind. Anakin sat at the bar with the group, carefully asking questions. "I have enough money. My husband will come with me."

The woman looked over her shoulder. "Him? He seems happy here. We will discuss business."

She glanced at Anakin again, but he was an unknown variable. There'd been a time when she could have counted on him without question, and more times than she could name that she'd trusted him with her life. Now he was nearly a stranger to her again. Ahsoka was used to working alone. She'd be better off handling this herself and not worrying about what she could trust him to do.

"Of course."

The woman led the way out of the cantina, down a handful of nondescript streets, then into a narrow alley. Ahsoka let her face show a mask of timid nervousness even as she stretched her muscles under her cloak, readying herself for ambush.

The alley spit out into another narrow street, this one darker, the looming buildings stretching overhead to meet almost in the middle, forming what was nearly a tunnel between them. Ahsoka had found the cantina to be less than clean and less than reputable, but the storefronts here made the establishment she'd just left appear to be an upscale Core restaurant in comparison. She relaxed. In her travels, she'd wandered through many places like this. The criminal underworld on every planet was made up of people too poor or too blemished in some way to walk the politer streets. Yes, they'd rob you or murder you if you crossed them, but those who walked among them as another lost soul were left alone as equals.

She was led to one of the many storefronts, this one no cleaner than the others and its name printed above the lintel in a language she couldn't read. "Wait here," said her guide, whose name she never learned and whom she never saw again.

Ahsoka stood patiently, keeping herself aware of her surroundings. As she let her eyes scour the street, she took note of faces and locations, potential hiding spots, and the occasional security holocam tucked away in the eaves of the buildings, watching her as she watched them. Down the street, near the alley where she'd come, a figure in a traveling cloak rested by the wall, far away and still in eyesight. A warm jolt hit her as she saw him, knowing his body language even from this distance, even after this long. He'd followed her anyway. He had her back.

The door opened. Ahsoka placed a friendly expression on her features. "Come in," said a voice whose owner she couldn't see.

Inside, the store was dimly-lit, a glowlamp with a heavy shawl thrown over as the only illumination. The door closed, and Ahsoka allowed herself to jump in a mild fright keeping with her cover. She'd won plenty of fights after being underestimated. "Hello," she said in what she hoped was a somewhat nervous titter. "Are you Lado Lisle?"

He was human, broad-shouldered and tall. "Who's asking?"

"Spivy gave me your name. I have questions and credits."

Lado folded his arms. "I don't answer questions for money."

"As you choose. I've been following a rumor. Some of the Separatist leadership survived the purge after Chancellor Palpatine's death. Everyone knows that." She'd found it paid to act as though the things she suspected were common knowledge. The curt nod this earned her to confirm the statement was why. "I'm looking for them."

"You and half the Republic. You think I'm going to give up the location of perfectly good customers for a couple of credits?"

Ahsoka had her grin. Lado had just handed her the most solid information she'd gained in months, while assuming he hadn't told her anything at all. "I'm afraid I can't offer much."

She sensed the presence of the intruder behind her and spun to defend herself, the ko-sticks she carried raised in both hands. Lado struck her with an electrical pulse at her abdomen as she was distracted by the newcomer, a Neimoidian she didn't recognize. She jumped away, but her reflexes had been dulled by the first pulse. If she could get to the door, she'd be fine, and if she couldn't reach the door, the filthy old window would do.

"Seize her," said the Neimodian, and Ahsoka ducked, striking Lado with her ko-sticks. He growled in pain, coming at her again. Instinctively, she pushed him back with the Force, which drew a hiss from both. She stepped away, too close to the Neimoidian.

Another pulse jittered through her, higher than the first, and she fell to her knees. A moment later, something cold and solid snapped around her neck and she gasped. Her connection to the Force, a feeling she'd always taken for granted, suddenly silenced. She shoved her way to her feet, and felt one more pulse rip through her. As she fell, consciousness drifting away, Lado said, "You can offer plenty, Jedi."


	3. Chapter 3

They hadn't discussed a plan, and as time dragged on, this worried Anakin more than anything else. He'd followed Ahsoka and her new friend and he'd kept watch on the front door, but the better part of an hour had passed without her emerging. He didn't want to ruin her op. They had just reconnected and the fastest way to drive her away again would be to make her think he didn't trust her judgment or her ability to handle herself in a situation. She was an adult. Had they both stayed in the Order, she would have taken and passed her trials by now. She'd be a full Jedi Knight and his equal, and he owed it to her to treat her with that level of respect.

But time was passing, and he was getting worried, and even though she hadn't asked him to come along as backup, his instincts told him she needed his help.

Anakin made his way down the street, walking by the building she'd entered without turning his head or indicating his interest in any way. He went down to the end of the block, found a place to loiter, and reached out with the Force to sense for her presence.

Nothing was there.

Worry turned to fear, which had never been good for him. He pushed it down, sending out his powers, searching for the distinct trace of Ahsoka's mind amid the turmoil of life surrounding him, but again, he felt nothing of her presence, not in the building, not in the wider city.

She couldn't be dead. He held onto that thought. He'd lost friends before, and the last spark of their lives had cried out in the Force even from parsecs away. He would know if Ahsoka had been killed, therefore she was alive.

Anakin made his way down another alley leading to the back of the same shopfront Ahsoka had entered from the other side. In the way of all alleys, it reeked of waste and held receptacles for the more acceptable kinds of detritus. He lingered by these, closing his eyes and listening with the Force to the presences inside the building. There were four, and now that he was listening, an eerie absence in the Force with them on a lower level, almost a hole in space, as if some small part of the Force had been cut off from the rest.

He checked the charge on his blaster. He missed his lightsaber on days like this, but a lightsaber was a calling card he couldn't risk.

They'd been in far worse situations, he told himself, even if he was unclear exactly what situation they were in. The back door looked solid. Barging in would cause even more trouble. At ground level he saw a set of windows letting the weakest of light from outside into the sublevels. They were barred from the inside. He knelt on the grimy surface, reached out, and nudged open the locks with his mind.

The window opened with little give, and he slid the bars out of his way carefully, setting them aside rather than letting them clang to the ground. He couldn't see much through the window and hoped for the best as he wriggled his way inside. The floor was two meters down, and he dropped lightly to his feet, hand grabbing for his blaster, but the room appeared empty save for some discarded boxes. He waited by the door, listening. Voices argued on the other side. He couldn't make out the words but the intent came through and twisted his gut. They were debating what to do with their prisoner.

"Hi," Ahsoka said, and he turned, seeing her in the corner, her hands bound. He hadn't sensed her at all, and as he hurried to her side, the emptiness in the Force grew.

"What happened?" he asked, reaching for the binders at her wrists and unlocking them with his powers. "Are you hurt?" 

"I'll be all right. I got what I came for, but they got the jump on me."

He saw a collar at her neck, and stiffened. Then he went to take it off. "Wait," she said. "It's a Force dampener."

"A what?"

"Mandalorian technology. I've seen it before." She looked dazed, almost in a stupor. "Be careful. It'll affect you too if you touch it."

He gave an experimental push with his powers, but he couldn't touch it that way. "I'll be quick. We have to get this off you." He grabbed it with his hands and instantly a dreadful coldness filled him. The color drained out of the world. The Force had been part of him his whole life, even in the years before he'd learned what it was, and like a switch, it had been turned off.

His fingers numb, he worked at the clasp, but it was locked. He let go and warmth and color flooded back. He took a relieved breath, which he felt bad about an instant later. Ahsoka was still trapped inside that hollow prison.

"They have a key," she said in a dull, sleepy voice. "We'll need it."

"I'll get it."

"Be careful."

"Me? I'm always careful."

She made a disbelieving noise in her throat. She was awake and aware enough to make fun of him, which was a good sign.

The inner door wasn't designed as any kind of barrier save for a thin visual break between rooms. This wasn't a holding cell, not even a temporary one. Once they figured out what their plans were for Ahsoka, they'd move her, or kill her here and dispose of her body. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the dim light, he picked out disquieting stains on the floor which told him too well how often her captors had chosen the latter option.

Anakin pulled a couple of the empty boxes closer to Ahsoka, erecting an insufficient but usable obstacle between her and the doorway. An extra layer, even of flimsiboard, might save her life in the fight he intended to pick.

He waited for the voices to raise again, distracted in their argument. Then he held out his hand and threw the door in at them with the Force, running in right after. One man had been dropped by the door. Anakin's blaster caught two others before they could reach for theirs. The last man drew his blaster and fired, singeing Anakin's hair as he turned his head to dodge the bolt. They both fired. Anakin's shot hit its mark. The last man groaned under the fallen door. Anakin leaned close.

"I assume you have a key for that collar around my friend's neck?"

"Jedi," spat the man.

"Where's the key?"

The man reached a wounded arm into his own pocket, digging and barely able to move under the door. He pulled out a small control chip and as Anakin reached for it, snapped the chip into pieces between his fingers and thumb.

"Oh, you're going to regret that," Anakin said, dropping to his knees and placing the business end of his blaster against the man's temple.

The man's laugh turned into a cough deep in his chest. "No. I don't think I will. My clan is rewarded richly every time we kill a Jedi. That collar will kill the Togruta _li'pa_ before you get it off her neck."

"She's not a Jedi," Anakin said. "Your clan will get nothing. Tell me how to remove it."

"No," he said, and died before he spoke another word.

Anakin looked at the other three men, but they weren't talking. He went through their pockets, as disgusting a task as that was, and searched the room. If there was a second control chip, he couldn't find it. Carefully, he gathered the broken pieces from the floor, tucking them safely away in his own pocket.

Back in the storage room, Ahsoka looked up at him with dulled eyes. "No key?"

"Broken key. Let's get back to the ship. Maybe I can repair it." He wasn't going to tell her the other thing her captor had said. He didn't have to.

"How long until it kills me?"

"You're going to be fine."

"This isn't a good time to start lying to me again, Anakin." She trembled as he helped her to her feet.

"I'm not lying," he said, helping her stagger through the outer room past the bodies. He'd never get her out through the window, and he didn't sense anyone else in the building. They'd go out through the back door, hurry back to the _Daystar_ , he'd fix the key, and everything would be fine.

"I heard what he said."

"So did I. He's wrong. I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of this. I just got you back. I'm not losing you again so fast."

"Not going anywhere," she murmured, her head not as solid on her shoulders as he'd like.

"I'm going to carry you," he told her, lifting her into his arms. She wasn't dainty; the muscles she'd spent a lifetime honing were solid mass, but she was light enough for him to carry up the stairs to the ground level. "Can you walk out or do you want me to carry you all the way back?"

"I can walk," she told him, even as she stumbled next to him.

They made their way out into the fetid alley, heading towards the brighter parts of the city. If he had to fight to get free now, he'd kill without hesitation, but the people he encountered out here had done them no harm yet and he'd prefer not to. He hadn't hesitated back in the horrible basement. Ahsoka had been in danger from them, was still in danger even now that they were fleeing the place. He hadn't wasted time in moralizing whether or not to refrain from using deadly force.

Every time he brushed the collar by accident, cold lightning shot through him, sucking away his energy. He could only imagine what it was like for her.

They made it as far as the cantina where they'd first looked for Lado when Ahsoka collapsed and couldn't go further. He carried her inside, his eyes taking in the current patrons. The Twi'lek who'd led her away was nowhere to be seen. He found a seat and placed Ahsoka there. "Hey," said the landlord. "No passed out customers."

"My wife is sick," Anakin said. "Is there a medical station nearby? Or a room where I could take her?"

There was a room, and for a handful of credits, one of the other patrons went to get a medical droid from the closest clinic. The room was two stories above the bar, clearly used by many patrons in the past to spend a few hours with a new friend or to sleep off their hangovers for more credits in the landlord's coffer. The bed looked clean enough. He rested her there. Her eyes slipped open. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry." 

"Let me tell you what I learned," she said. "I'd hate for this to all be for nothing when I die."

"You're not going to die." He sat next to her on the bed. "I need to check your pulse." She nodded, and Anakin reached his fingers to rest tenderly on her breastbone. Her heart rate was faster than a human's but now it sped at a pace that frightened him. Her skin was cool to the touch, though. It was as if her heart was beating fast to keep up the energy siphoned away by her restraint. Lado had been right. If her body kept this up, it would kill her.

He kept that fear off his face and took her hands in his, warming them. "As soon as the med droid gets here, I'll go back to the ship and get my tools. I'll repair the key chip and free you. Everything is going to be fine."

"Lado was working with the Separatist leadership. They're his best customers. That means they're close. We're close. We can find them."

"We will," he said. If she was still talking 'we' she hadn't given up yet. "I need you to rest as much as you can. This is sapping your energy. Can you eat something?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Then just rest. We'll have you out of this in no time."

The medical droid arrived in poor spirits a few minutes later. Anakin showed it the collar, hoping it might be able to break her free.

"Unusual. I have not encountered this alloy before. You say it is sickening your wife?"

"Yes, and I need to remove it."

The droid hunkered down beside the bed, starting to run scans over her. Anakin took her hand one more time, squeezed, and left.

* * *

The droid's hands were warmed to a temperature comfortable to most organics it would see on a daily basis. Ahsoka shivered at every touch. Thinking was difficult. Had she told Anakin what she'd learned? She didn't see him nearby. Had he ever been here or was he a figment of her tired mind? Surely she hadn't randomly bumped into her former master in jail and been captured by Separatist allies the next day? And they'd been married? Even with the current mushy nature of her thoughts that seemed unlikely. He'd been a dream, nothing more, a fantasy her mind had provided in the advent of her oncoming death to allow her closure, and instead she'd wasted her last words on some weak clue rather than telling him the important things she wanted to say.

Warm tears slid down her face. "Are you in pain?" the droid asked, its voice modulated in a semblance of kindness. "I have fifty-three painkillers compatible with your anatomy."

"I'm not in pain. I'm sad because I am going to die alone."

"There is a seventy-six percent chance you are correct. Most organics die alone when they expire. I don't believe you are going to die in the next hour."

"That's good."

"I believe I should be able to keep you alive for at least five days with the proper equipment."

She went to sit up and found herself too weak. "Do you have that equipment here?"

"I do not. It is not currently on this planet. But I can requisition it to arrive tomorrow. I estimate a thirty percent chance you will be alive by the time I have installed it but once I have, I should be able to preserve your life for four to five additional days."

She sighed and closed her eyes. The Force had always been her guide and her protector. Without it, she felt as though she'd lost her sight or her hearing or her touch, and the vicious collar that stole her sense took all her strength into its sucking maw. She thought thirty percent was too high a chance. She doubted she'd live through the night.

"I want to send a letter," she said. Yes. If her groggy mind had given her a vision of Anakin, she would listen to it, and she would spend the last of her energy composing the words even her dying brain had known she needed to tell him.

"I will request a pad for you when I leave." The droid turned its head as the door opened. A traveler in a deep cloak stepped into the room.

"How is she?" asked Anakin. Anakin was here. Ahsoka blinked dull shock from her eyes. He was real, not a figment of her imagination.

"Query: do you understand medical terms?"

"Assume I don't."

"She is not well," said the droid. It stood. "I will go acquire the equipment I need. I will return in the morning. If the patient is alive, I will treat her. Give her this if she is in pain." It handed Anakin a small injector and left. Anakin swore at the closed door in rather good Huttese.

"Ignore him," he said, opening up the box of tools he'd brought. "I'll have this repaired in no time."

"You're really here," she said. She clung to that thought.

Maybe he heard something in her voice. Maybe he was worried about her condition. He sat next to her on the bed and squeezed her hands. The pressure of his mechanical hand squeezed tighter than his organic hand, the way he'd always felt when he'd touched her. "There's no better place for me to be," said Anakin, and he pressed his lips to her forehead.

She drifted in and out of consciousness as he worked, his hands using tiny grippers to perform the delicate work as he observed the circuit through an enlarging glass. Two floors below them, the noise of the cantina ebbed and flowed as the patrons moved in and out. In this borrowed room, they were alone with each other and the haunting half-dreams that followed her in and out of sleep. "I'm glad you're here," she said in one of her lucid moments. "I missed you so much."

He turned and gave her a smile. "I missed you, too. We talked about this last night, only you were the sober one and I was the one under the intoxicant."

"That was only last night? It seems like weeks ago."

"Getting that tired of me?"

"Never," she said, and slipped under again. She woke to watch him working and slept again with the discomfort of her heart racing and her limbs chilly. She moaned herself awake, and Anakin sat on the bed beside her, his face concerned.

"Hey," he said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm so cold."

"I know you are." He'd wrapped her in blankets but they didn't help. "As soon as I get this, you'll feel better." He went back to his work, nervousness dripping off him even if she couldn't reach out to feel it. "I'm almost there. A few more connections and we'll have the key."

She nodded, her tongue too thick and chilled in her mouth to speak now. She was so tired, and part of her knew if she slipped back to sleep one more time, she would never wake up again. She forced her eyes open, forced herself to watch him as he hunched over the tiny chip. "I want to tell you," she tried to say, but the words came out as an unfocused susurration without form. Her eyelids felt heavy on her face.

"Anakin," she said, pushing the word out of herself. Not a great last word, but not a terrible one.

"Got it," he said, and came to her side, drawing her back to full consciousness as he brushed her face. His arm twitched as he touched her collar, feeling for the entry port where the key slid in with a click. "There," he said, and went to remove the collar.

It was still locked.

Anakin wasn't the type to panic. He ejected the key again and reinserted it. "This is going to work," he told her in a calm voice. "I fixed it." Still nothing.

"It was good try," she said. "I'm glad you're here with me now. I wish we had more time."

"Don't talk like that. You're going to be okay." That was him, she knew. Always thinking he could protect the people he cared about. Always terrified when he discovered he couldn't. He tried the key again, flinching each time he touched the collar even with his mechanical hand.

"Maybe he lied. Maybe he showed you the wrong key. This isn't your fault."

He turned back to his work bag. "I have one more thing I can try." He took out the hilt of his lightsaber and lit it. "This can cut through anything, but it's dangerous. One slip and I could kill you."

Her eyes watched the blue glow as he came closer. "I trust you."

He held the blade with utmost care, setting the plasma edge against the metal collar. Heat began to radiate through the collar as the lightsaber slowly cut a thin line. Molten metal scalded her skin. Ahsoka bit back a scream, holding utterly still lest she thrash and accidentally run the blade into her own clavicle.

And then he was through. He doused the blade, dropping it, and grabbed the collar, easily bending it open and away from her. The Force rushed in, full of music and life, filled with Anakin's presence beside her as he threw the horrible collar to the floor and took her in an embrace. She fell into his arms, sobbing. "I'm sorry," he said over and over, stroking her head. "I'm so sorry."

Her limbs ached in exhaustion, and her skin was an agony. Anakin pulled away, gently examining the injury. "I'm so, so sorry."

"You saved my life," she said, when she could speak. "I'll heal. Thank you."

Anakin found the injector the droid had left and administered it to her. The sharp pain faded into dullness. His work bag carried extra bactaplasts for when he injured himself and he applied three strips to her burn, the tips of his fingers carefully pressing the edges into place on the unharmed skin around her wound. He gave her a tender smile. She touched his cheek, then leaned in for a soft kiss against his mouth.

He jerked away, then covered with a different smile that didn't disguise the discomfort on his face. "I'm glad you're feeling better. You should sleep this off tonight. We've already got the room for the rest of the night, and the droid can come check on you in the morning."

Part of the cold from before seeped back into her heart. "Good idea." She curled up under the blankets, no longer shivering but still not warm. "Join me?"

He went still. "I can sleep on the floor."

"I slept next to you last night," she said. "The bed is more comfortable than the cell was, and I could use some extra body heat."

"Right." He looked down at his tools. "Let me clean everything up first." He used a set of grippers to pick up the broken collar and dropped it into the bag with the rest. "I'd like to examine this back on the ship. If we run into another one, it'd be nice if we had a countermeasure."

After he'd tidied, and tidied again she noticed, and excused himself to use the 'fresher downstairs, and checked the room again, only then did he remove his boots and climb under the covers with her. He contorted his body to be on the other side of the bed from her.

She'd lost some of the embarrassment from before. She'd kissed him out of relief, she told herself. Surely he understood that. "I don't bite, you know. Well, I do bite, but only when asked nicely."

"Very funny."

"Not that funny. My last girlfriend loved it when I bit her. It got weird after a while."

He rolled over to face her. "You've been dating?"

"I'm allowed to date."

"I know. It just seems strange."

"Says the guy who was married the whole time he was my master."

"And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that sooner. What was her name?"

"I'm not telling you that."

"You know the name of the last woman I dated. I can't know yours?"

"Go to sleep, Anakin." She rolled away from him. About a minute later she felt the bed shift. He rolled closer, then with slow care, ready to stop if she pushed him away, he wrapped his arms around her. She settled into his warmth, her body comfortable for the first time in hours. Between that safe feeling and the painkillers in her system, she passed into a final deeper, and much needed, sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Anakin woke up more content than he'd felt in years. He drifted in the warm, golden peace of early consciousness, growing aware of the heat of a second body pressed against his, and his arm pinned in place by someone's head. His eyes opened to see blue and white stripes, the points of Ahsoka's montrals, and the bump of her rear lek. Her breathing was regular and deep.

The events of the previous day organized themselves in his head. Ahsoka had dropped back into his life and led him on a mission not dissimilar to the one he'd given himself, getting herself captured and almost killed in the process. She'd had the intel but jumped in without thinking ahead. No question where she'd picked up that habit. But he'd gotten her to safety, and he'd cut that awful collar off her before it choked the life from her. And he'd hurt her terribly in the process. And she'd kissed him, and they'd crawled into this bed together.

Yesterday had been a very strange day.

As the cap, he'd dreamed about her again. This time they'd been in the middle of the Council chamber, and he'd taken Ahsoka Wookiee-fashion on her knees while shadowy figures leaned in with an intense attention, watching every stroke he made and every sweet moan she cried. He deemed himself lucky he hadn't spoiled his shorts in his sleep.

He began the process of extricating his arm from under her. The synth-net interface didn't fall asleep like an organic limb, prickling him with pinched nerves. Had they slept facing the other way, his left arm would already be yelling at him. If he didn't jostle her, he could get out of the bed and maybe find some food for their breakfast before the droid came back.

She stirred awake as he moved. "Good morning."

"Good morning. Sorry. I was trying not to wake you."

Ahsoka shifted, allowing him to pull free. Then she turned, rolling over to face him, a few inches remaining between them. His eyes caught the stark white of the bacta strips and he failed to hide his wince.

"It doesn't hurt," she said, following his gaze. "I can already feel the skin healing."

"We'll have the med droid check you out to be sure."

"We shouldn't," she said, sitting up and stretching. He'd barely paid attention to her clothes yesterday, so caught up in the exhilaration of her presence and their goal. She wore a simple tunic shirt with thin strips over her shoulders, which rolled and moved with strong grace as she flexed, and plain material in front which now clung to her shape in a most interesting fashion.

Anakin pulled his eyes back in before the other part of his usual waking state got him into trouble. One of his many awkward conversations with Obi-Wan over the years had included how to use his mind to overcome the frankly embarrassing reactions of his body, and the lessons still came in handy.

"We should," he said, moving out from under the blankets. "You almost died yesterday."

She climbed out of bed. "I know, and if we linger here, that's a lot more likely. We should have gone back to the ship."

"You couldn't walk and you needed a doctor. This was the closest place to let you rest."

"We were seen here. If Lado's friends come looking for us, this is the first place they'll start."

Anakin felt his irritation rise. "But they didn't. It's fine. We'll wait for the droid, then get back to the ship. You said you had the information you needed. Do we have a new destination in mind?"

She shook her head. "I should stay on this planet until I can track down more clues. If Lado worked with them, they're probably in this system."

"You just said we should have gone back to the ship, now you want to stay?"

"I want to solve this. Getting captured won't help, but neither will leaving."

"You almost died!" The irritation won. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Other than it means I'm close? No. You and I were in a war together. We almost died every other day."

The words slipped out before he could stop himself: "I didn't consider that you'd die before. Now I've been there. I don't like it. You have to play things safer." A strange feeling came over him, almost a vision, Ahsoka lying dead, and a glow around her. A convoree? The image faded as he tried to remember what it meant, like some strange dream he couldn't quite recall.

"I really don't." Ahsoka rubbed her face with her hand. "You are always bad with this?"

"With what?"

"With people you care about getting hurt. You're like that. It's not a bad thing," she added as he felt his face cloud. "It means you care. Caring is one of your finest traits and it's something I've always liked about you. But you're not stopping me from doing what I have to. You don't have that right. If it bothers you so much, then go. I wish you well. I have to see this through."

"And if I'm not there to save you next time?"

"I've saved myself enough times over the years. I'll get by." She'd locked her face into a determined glare. "I'm not a kid anymore. I appreciate your help yesterday, but I'm fine on my own."

"Fine," he said. "No doctor, no backup, just you storming back into trouble because you can't let this go."

"If I have to, yes."

He made a noise in his throat and sat on the bed, resting his eyes in the palms of his hands. The right eye flashed with quick light from the sudden pressure and he didn't care. "Never, ever tell him I said this, but Obi-Wan was right."

"Obi-Wan was right a lot of the time. What was he right about this time?"

"That when you spent too much time around me, you wound up sounding exactly like me when I go off in a huff on an ill-advised plan. His words." He could even hear them echo in his ears.

"Are you making my plans all about you again?"

He dropped his hands to his legs, and let out a puff of amusement. "Probably." He looked at her. "I'm not going anywhere without you. Wherever you go, I'm going until you tell me to leave you alone. If you want to jump headfirst into another plan that might get you killed, then I'm jumping in headfirst beside you."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you saying this as some kind of reverse trick to convince me to leave?"

"Have you ever known me to be that subtle?"

She went to say something, then said, "No. Fine. Let's get breakfast and go back to where we were yesterday. I want to look around more. We can't stay here another night. The ship will be safer."

"Fine."

They gathered his bag and went out, heading down the two flights towards the cantina.

At the bottom of the stairs, they met six people of various species holding blasters. He held out a brief hope they'd come here for someone else, but one gestured at Ahsoka.

"We'll be going," Anakin said, giving them one chance to back away.

"She killed Lado and Nord," said one of the men.

Pointing out he'd been the one wouldn't win him any friends. "They were trying to kill her at the time."

Ahsoka said, "I'll be happy to explain to the authorities."

As the others approached, Anakin said, "These don't look like 'explaining to the authorities' types."

The first blaster bolt bounced away as Ahsoka waved her hand, her reflexes faster than his. He heard the word "Jedi" muttered angrily, gave an internal shrug, and shoved three of them away with the Force. One took a swing at Ahsoka, but she dodged, cutting him off at the knees with a swift kick. Anakin blocked another blaster bolt, aware of his more limited motion by the bag in his hands. He wasn't about to leave his tools behind, but out of his way would be handy. He threw the bag into the air, then took out one of his assailants with a quick punch, and a second with another. He caught the bag, and saw Ahsoka throw one of them into a table with her arms rather than her powers.

There was an opening. "Time to go," he said, and she followed him as he ran. More blaster shots followed them. He didn't know this city, knew only that going down the same streets as they had last night would lead to more trouble. He ducked down another alley, Ahsoka at his heels, before she pushed past and found a narrower opening between two buildings that they just fit through as they hurried, then found a hiding space behind a large waste container.

Outside and past them, footsteps ran with echoes and shouts. They waited, listening, crouched and ready to fight again if they had to. Anakin turned to watch her. "You okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"Fine. You?"

"Feeling pretty good actually. You and I haven't been in a battle together in a long time. I missed that, too."

"That wasn't a battle. That barely qualified as a bar fight."

"What I hear you saying is that we should find a good battle."

"I'm saying we should get back to the ship." She led the way out, navigating the streets better than he could.

He frowned. "You're not staying?"

"Not now. We'll have to look over what we've got. We can come back when people aren't trying to kill me for something you did." She got to the intersection of two streets, peered out, then made her way into the other groups walking by, blending in with them. Suddenly, instead of two fugitives, they were simply another couple on the street out for a stroll. To complete the illusion, she stepped closer and took his free hand in hers as they walked.

"I was rescuing you. We went over this."

"We did. Did I remember to say thanks?"

"You could stand to say it again."

"Anakin."

"I'm kidding. We're both alive. It's a good day. Best honeymoon ever."

That drew a surprised laugh from her. "I'd forgotten."

He put on a face of mock indignation. "Married one day and you've already forgotten me?"

"Guess it wasn't the best honeymoon ever after all."

"I'll have to try harder next time."

"I'll hold you to that. I've got a list of suggestions." She grinned, and a familiar warmth hit him in the gut. They were joking around, that was all. She was comfortable around him, not flirting. But she'd kissed him last night, and he'd spent hours awake beside her after, holding her while she'd slept and trying not to dwell on why.

* * *

Anakin took them into atmosphere and then into orbit while Ahsoka changed the dressing on her injury with fresh bacta strips. Staying to see the med droid might have been a good idea, but sticking around right now was only going to lead to more trouble. The skin was healing, and would leave a scar. Just another souvenir from her travels: this commemorated that one time Anakin had to use his lightsaber to cut the Force-choking collar off her. That would be a story to tell at parties, if she ever went to parties.

She joined him in the cockpit as he pored over the star charts in his navicomputer. "Where should we go?"

"What's close?" She didn't want to travel far, not if they were coming back.

"Saleucami isn't far, and there'll be a decent medical center."

"Sounds good." He set the course and locked in the coordinates before peeling out of orbit and getting them ready to jump. She sat beside him, watching the stars. "Did you mean it?"

"Mean what?"

"That you're going with me wherever I go."

He shrugged, guiding the ship a little further out, then engaging the hyperdrive. "I've got the ship. You've got the plan. Seems like a good idea to me." She didn't reply and he revolved his chair to face her. "I don't want to say goodbye again until I have to. If things had been different, you and I would have spent most of the last seven years together."

"If things had been different, we'd be different people now. I like being the person I am." She'd had a lot of time to think about her life and her choices. She was happy with them.

"You're worried that if I stick around, you might find yourself falling back into old habits and undo some of your own growth."

She sighed. "Yes. You keep talking about the old times. Don't get me wrong, I look back on those times fondly. I have missed you so much over the years. But I can't go back to who I was then, and I can't deal with you trying to see me as that girl." She bit her lip. "I don't even know if I'm making sense. I loved the life we had before. But I don't want it back, and I won't try to give that to you. I can't."

"I'm sorry if I made you feel that way."

"You keep saying sorry."

"I did burn molten metal on you last night."

"You did." She rubbed the skin next to her bacta strips. "Next time, let's stick to hot wax."

He turned away from her, back to the swirling blue, his cheeks flushing.

She sighed again. "This is what I'm talking about. Yes, I've dated a few people. Yes, I've had sex. Yes, I'm going to joke about that. You were married. You've had sex, too. I understand that you're uncomfortable when I talk about it, but you have to stop seeing me as a little kid."

"I don't see you as a little kid."

"Right."

He let out an annoyed sound. "I'm not uncomfortable because I see you as a child. I'm uncomfortable because you're not."

"As I said."

"No." He shook his head and closed his eyes. Then he looked at her. "You grew up, and if I'd watched you grow up beside me, I'd have been used to every change over the days. Instead, you dropped into my life again, and I wasn't used to you. You were a brand new woman, brilliant and gorgeous and self-reliant, and you were also at the same time the same amazing girl I used to know. I have to keep reminding myself who you are to me."

She listened to his words in a strange, bubbly confusion. "And that is?"

"You're my friend. You were my padawan. I need to keep those first in mind."

"Why?"

"Because if I'd met someone just like you two days ago who wasn't one of my best friends, and hadn't been my apprentice, I'd be lost. Then you start joking about biting and hot wax and I'm halfway lost already."

"You think I'm joking?"

"I don't know what to think, and I don't want to think about it, because I'm not supposed to think about you that way."

She took his words into consideration. "You're worried about being attracted to me, so instead you'd rather see me as a little girl."

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "I think under the circumstances that would be a lot worse, actually." He took a long breath. "It's going to take some time for me to reset my brain around you. You're worried about me being uncomfortable, and I'm positive I'm going to make you uncomfortable before I can remind myself not to flirt with you."

"I definitely don't want you flirting with me," she said.

His mouth moved into a flat line. "I understand."

"Because you're terrible at it. I've seen you try to flirt. It's embarrassing for everyone involved."

"And this is the kind of conversation that helps me remember, so thank you, I think."

"You're welcome. So we're agreed, we leave the flirting to me."

"I don't think that's what we agreed to."

"We should. I'm better at flirting than you are. For example, when you flirt, you act like you've never been around another person in your entire life. When I flirt," she leaned closer to him, resting one hand on his leg close to his knee, "I touch you, and I keep eye contact." She demonstrated this, holding his gaze as she spoke. "And I talk about other things I've done with other people, not as a means to make you jealous, but to make you curious, and make you wonder where else I've been and what else I've done."

She expected him to pull back from her, to put up another wall. They carried their old lives with them, and their old roles stood between them now. She'd pushed too far.

Anakin leaned forward. "It's going to be hard for me to remember not to flirt with you if you keep going on like this." His voice was lower than it had been, and his eyes didn't drop from hers.

"You'll have to try harder. You've got a lot of not-flirting ground to make up here. I seem to recall you said I was gorgeous."

"So I did." He reached for her, almost afraid, and rested his left hand on her arm. The heat from him burned her like the collar had, but that had been ache and this was need. She fought herself from trembling. "You're saying that's part of my bad flirting."

"That part wasn't bad. You're showing improvement. You could use some lessons."

"We won't reach Saleucami until tomorrow. I've got some time to learn."

She wondered how far she could push him. He'd pulled away from her before. At any moment, he could fall back inside his head and decide this wasn't appropriate, wasn't right. If she pushed him too hard, he might tip back into worry, and even if this went the way she hoped, he might wake up beside her hating himself. Going slow would be the sensible choice, though in all the time she'd ever known him, Anakin had never chosen the sensible option when there was a chance to rush in headfirst. And she had to admit, she'd picked up the same habit.

"Then," she said, sliding her hand higher on his thigh, "it sounds like we'll have to work on your lessons all night."

She had anticipated the hesitance which flashed into his eyes at her bold proposition. Part of him would always see her as the girl she'd been, the girl he'd sworn to protect, and her shadow would always stand in front of the woman she had become, and the woman she was still learning to be. The rest of him allowed a naked, almost sorrowful longing to cover his entire posture as he asked, "Are you sure about this?"

He'd led her into battle, and led her into trouble outside of that, more times than she could count, but Ahsoka accepted that she was going to need to take the lead now. One hand still against his leg, she reached for him with the other, tugged his chin to hers and kissed him hard. Her lips crushed against his, demanding, and with a sigh, his mouth opened to hers. "I'm sure," she said, breathing into him. "You owe me a proper honeymoon, if you'll recall."

She enjoyed the jump of his leg against one hand, the movement of his jaw against the other as he leaned into her and returned the kiss.

* * *

Anakin stirred awake, his arms embracing a soft form. The ship's lights were set to low at this time, simulating a day-night cycle that didn't always match up to the cycles of the planets he visited. He'd dozed off, exhausted and happy, and now he wasn't sure of the time. They were still in hyperspace, living in the wonderful in-between where real space and real problems could be set aside. A good place to find someone, but not the best place to start something he wanted to be real.

This felt real.

He'd been caught up in need and had taken little time to explore her, stroking and probing and teasing her open with his fingers. She'd groaned her first orgasm when he'd entered her with a single metal digit, the synthsteel of his hand vibrating against her, and he'd felt her sparkling climax shoot through him, his own body shivering in tandem. The moment she'd recovered, she'd pushed him to the bunk and taken him in with one deep stroke. He'd gasped at the tight, wet, perfect heat of her, and what felt like thousands of tiny suckers inside her lining her inner walls. She wasn't a telepath and neither was he, but he'd nevertheless felt each brush of her own fingers between them, as she'd pleasured herself while riding him hard. His hands had gripped her roughly, digging into her hips. The overwhelming sensations had been eclipsed only by the depths of the emotions he'd felt watching her face as she crested a second peak. His mouth had run himself into trouble calling her gorgeous, but he'd stopped his own babbling before he'd gotten into worse trouble. He might be forgiven a slip for pointing out she'd grown into an extraordinary beauty during their years apart but he could not so easily explain away his deeper and more intense wonderment at the sweet loveliness of her spirit.

"You're thinking too loudly." Ahsoka's voice was muffled by her own arm. She faced away from him, wrapped in his touch. The first night, they'd slept next to each other on a hard jail shelf. The next night, they'd curled next to each other in a comfortable bed, their clothes and their pasts between them as neat chaperons. Nothing lay between them now. The warmth of her skin pressed deliciously against his as they lay nested together like dolls. She took a breath and rolled over, letting his arms hold her against him now face to face as her eyes drifted open from her nap.

He bent up to kiss her forehead. "I know for a fact you're not telepathic. You were tested when you came to the temple, the same as I was. Also, if you could really read my mind, you'd have demanded a new assignment before you turned fifteen. My brain is a strange place."

"I don't have to read your thoughts to know that." She reached for his hand, stretching their arms out together before bringing both hands back between them, fingers entwined and resting against one breast. "My point stands. You're thinking something. Tell me."

"What's to tell? I just woke up."

"And now you're having doubts. About this. About us." She didn't sound upset with him, or sad. She was waiting.

"Is there an us?"

She looked at him for a long moment, her eyes tracing the changes in his face since they parted years ago. "This was fun. I think we did well to get it out of the way instead of tiptoeing around each other."

"'Get it out of the way?'" He settled closer to her. "You make it sound like getting our annual Golfin Fever inoculations."

She gave him a smile and a friendly kiss. "I did say I had fun."

He read her expression. She wasn't afraid of him, or angry with him, or Force forbid bored by him, but she wasn't wide-eyed with desire. He had a feeling if he agreed the sex had been a diverting one-off, she would shrug, and get dressed, and treat him exactly the same as she had before.

He didn't want to say this had been a diverting one-off. Ahsoka was one of the most important people who'd ever come into his life. Making love to her then shrugging off the experience was outside of Anakin's abilities. But he couldn't hold her here if all she'd wanted was a fun fling with a willing friend. The old him would have coaxed and coddled and wheedled and stormed until she agreed to see things his way. The old Ahsoka might even have been convinced. The woman next to him knew her own wishes too well to be persuaded, and if he cared about her, he wouldn't hurt her by trying to change her mind.

"A lot of fun," he said, covering his regret with a grin. "But you're right. We're just two friends who needed to work that out of our systems. Nothing more than that."

She watched him in the low light for a moment. "Nothing at all."


	5. Chapter 5

Ahsoka had nearly finished setting up her cabin when Anakin came to the doorway blinking sleep from his eyes. "Hi," he said with a casual uncertainty. "What are you doing?"

"Putting my cabin together. You said this one was mine. I'm arranging it."

"Yes I did," he said, still blinking. His hair was a mess. She was mildly distracted by the fact that he was still naked, but of course, so was she. She hadn't seen the point of putting on clothes yet, and they'd seen each other undressed plenty of times over the years before, washing up together after a battle or a sparring session. Nudity hadn't been an issue when they'd been Jedi. She wouldn't make it one now.

He asked, "You're moving into your cabin?"

"Arranging. You were sleeping and I was restless. I didn't want to bother you." She finished storing her few possessions and placed her knapsack in a convenient nook. "You said I could have this one. I thought I'd get started." She took a seat on the bunk and patted the space. After a moment, he joined her. "Look," she said, pointing. "I moved things around to have some room in the middle for meditation and exercise."

"It's a good use of space."

"I need space. I've been on my own for years. I'm not used to having anyone else around, much less someone around me all the time. I need the quiet to think."

"Right. That makes sense."

She lay back on the bunk. After a moment, he lay next to her, not touching her. Anakin hadn't changed much, but he was changing. She hoped the people they were changing into could keep room in their lives for each other. He had said he'd rather they stay friends, and she would respect that decision even if her arms ached to reach over to him and pull his body against hers again.

"Oh," he said, sitting up and hurrying out the door. He came back in a minute later. "I meant to give these to you." He held out his hands, showing her the hilts of her lightsabers.

She got to her feet, looking down at her weapons. "You kept them?"

"I always hoped you'd come back for them."

She tensed. They were back to this already? Then he handed them to her. "Since you're putting the rest of your things away, you might want to store these somewhere safe."

"Thank you." She clutched the hilts for one moment, and a hundred memories flooded through her. Fights next to him. Fights next to their other friends. Practice spars with people she cared about. The sheer unbridled joy of battle. That wasn't who she was now, but it didn't mean she wouldn't be someone like that again. She turned and stowed the lightsabers into her knapsack.

He didn't comment on her storage choice. She asked, "Where's yours?"

"In a drawer in my cabin. I can show you."

"I was curious. I don't need to see it. How long has it been since you carried it with you?"

"Since I came out here. With a blaster, I can be anybody. With a lightsaber, there's only one person I can be. I'm not him any longer."

But he hadn't left it behind, and he hadn't gotten rid of it, or sold it. Part of him was still that person, she thought, and she wondered at herself, placing her own lightsabers into the knapsack that always went with her. A different Ahsoka wouldn't have accepted them. Part of her was still that person, too.

"Breakfast?" she asked him, changing the subject before they could both fall into old thoughts.

"Sounds good."

She did put on clothes now, a quick shift she used for sleeping, and Anakin emerged from his cabin wearing soft trousers. As he warmed two rations packs, Ahsoka took a longer, more critical look around as she began straightening. "We'll want to clean. You have a lot of room here, more than I thought. You'll be able to see it with the clutter gone."

"Hey," he said, taking a broken bit of metal from her hand. "That clutter is mine."

"And the clutter will stay yours. We can organize it better, though."

He made a noise that wasn't agreement and wasn't yet an argument. He'd never been good with boundaries and she'd learned how far she could push them from his example. He'd offered her a chance to stay, and given her a cabin. How much of the ship was hers to occupy? She needed to know before she decided how long she was staying aboard, and he would tell her the answer he thought she wanted.

As he handed her a plate of warm food, Ahsoka mused on how much trust they needed to rebuild between them. They could start in small pieces and that meant defining the gaps.

"I need you to be honest with me," she said through a piping hot bite.

"All right. That dress looks covering but it's pretty flimsy. You should think about replacing it."

"It's a sleeping gown. It's supposed to be light and flimsy." She took another bite. "This is your ship."

"Yes?"

"I need to know how much of it is mine to use. Don't say 'all of it.' You don't mean that."

He went to answer and stopped himself. "I don't know. Yes, it's my ship."

"Am I a passenger?"

"I could teach you the controls. I should teach you the controls in case I'm ever incapacitated. They're not standard but you should pick them up pretty quickly."

"Thanks." She finished her meal. "You didn't answer the question."

"I haven't had time to consider it. This time yesterday I wasn't even sure you were leaving the planet with me. If you're staying, and I do want you to stay," he said, looking at her fondly, "we'll have to figure out what that means."

It was a better answer than she'd expected. "Agreed."

A low beep came from the cockpit. "We're approaching Saleucami." He dropped his plate into the cleaner and went to take the controls. Ahsoka placed her plate into the cleaner and joined him. "I'll bring us in near the Taleucema medical center."

"Good call. I should put on real clothes, and so should you." She almost added an offer to help him get his pants off, but she wasn't sure how he'd take it. She'd joked with him and flirted with him before, but would he assume she was trying to get him back into bed? She didn't want to force the issue with him.

Anakin set the autopilot to orbit. "We should."

* * *

As promised, he took her to the medical center first. Organic doctors worked alongside the droids. The doctor who examined Ahsoka was a human woman who kept shooting Anakin glances.

"Sir, if you could wait outside."

He looked at Ahsoka. "I can stay or I can go."

"This could take a while. Do you want to pick up supplies and meet me back at the ship?"

"Fine."

He was ushered out with little ceremony past the waiting cubicle into the street. Ahsoka had divided up the rest of her money, in a weird switch from when he'd once handed her his own credits while they were out. The balance between them had changed. She'd made it clear she had no intention of bringing back the previous status quo, and he was happy with that. He didn't need someone around to look after and protect and teach. He needed a partner and friend.

These thoughts followed him as he made his purchases, first of fuel, then of food. Four days ago, he wouldn't have considered he needed anything other than a quick job to get his hands on some credits. Ahsoka had turned his life upside down the first time she'd come into it, full of spirit and questions and energy. She'd returned with the same overwhelming sweep into his life, knocking over the pieces he'd idly set up for himself and demanding to be treated as his equal. A distant, absent part of him, the part that stood aside as he made all his decisions and spoke with Obi-Wan's voice in his head, warned him any minute now he'd get fed up with her. Nothing good lasted. That was why she'd left before, wasn't it? But he prodded at the selfish unhappy parts of himself that should be complaining about the changes to his life, and he came up empty. Ahsoka wasn't bothering him with her sudden reappearance. She filled an empty place he hadn't admitted was open and raw and sad. He needed her. She'd said she would prefer to stay friends after last night, and he would respect that decision although it hurt. As long as she stayed with him, he would be happy.

Ahsoka returned to the ship as he finished refueling. Instantly he noticed the flicker in her eyes.

"Hi. What's wrong?" His gaze dropped to her fresh bandage. "How bad?" he asked with sudden worry.

"I'm fine. No underlying damage. Did you need any help?"

"Just finishing up." He noticed the change in subject. "What happened?"

"It's nothing."

He turned and boarded the ship. She followed. As soon as the hatch was closed, he said, "You said you don't want me to lie to you, even by omission. I don't get the same thing back?"

She made a face, which turned into a more sorrowful sigh. "The doctor sent you away because she wanted to ask me some questions in private. The collar left marks around my neck." He'd noticed the scrapes, a combination of a too-tight hold and the careless way he'd ripped it from her neck, but her burn had been his greatest concern. "I tried explaining, but I couldn't tell her about the Force dampener. When she gave me the full scan to confirm I had no other health issues, the computer pulled up fresh bruises on my legs and thighs, and then I had to convince her that no, you aren't keeping me as a sex slave." She sat heavily into her seat. "I had to use the mind trick on her at the end to push her off. She meant well," she said, looking up at him. "She was only concerned for my safety. But it was a lousy conversation."

Only by the grace of the Force had none of his or his mother's owners wanted more from either than their hard work. Acidic fire burned in his stomach at the thought of some stranger thinking he would ever, that he could....

"I'm going back there to give her a piece of my mind."

"You are not. If anything, you will thank her for her concern. Not everyone she'll see with the same injuries will have picked them up from a botched mission between two ex-Jedi. It's better for her to ask than not ask and let some poor soul continue to suffer." She rubbed her head. "At least, that's what I've decided to tell myself."

As he went to argue, he made himself stop and look at it from Ahsoka's perspective. She didn't want to dwell on the incident, and she didn't want to discourage the doctor from helping someone else in a bad situation. "If that's what you want."

"It is." She covered over with a quick smile. "I had a look around on my way back. We may have come into some luck."

"There's work?" Mentally, he went through his supplies. He wouldn't need fuel for a while but if he intended to keep eating, a job would come in handy sooner rather than later.

"Better." She removed her small holocam from a pocket and flashed an image between them. "What does that look like to you?"

Anakin peered at the captured image. "That's Nute Gunray. Or his identical twin." He looked at her. "They're here?"

"One of them is. The others won't be far."

It made sense, or as much sense as the rest of this search had. "We should go after him."

Ahsoka pursed her lips. "We can't."

"They funded and ran a war that cost countless lives. There are warrants out for their arrest."

"And we aren't authorized to enforce those warrants," she reminded him. "Jedi could lawfully bring them in. You are I are just nosy civilians. We need to contact the proper authorities who can bring them to stand trial."

He knew she was right. He also knew her well enough to know a rehearsed speech she'd told herself when he heard one. Ahsoka had been chasing these same shadows for years. She wanted to go after them as badly as he did. "You're right, of course," Anakin said. "They need to be brought to justice by the designated representatives of the Republic, either military forces or by Jedi."

"Yes, and we're no longer either."

He gave her a grin. "Gunray and his friends don't know that."

She froze, her whole body stilled for a moment as she considered this this. "No," Ahsoka said, a thoughtful expression growing over her face. "They don't."

* * *

The plan was simple. They'd return to where Ahsoka had spotted Gunray, and they'd take him into custody. Once he was secured, they could contact someone back home who could take him off their hands officially.

Ahsoka removed her lightsabers from the knapsack, holding them close for a long, tight moment. Anakin came to the doorway. "Did you want to warm up before you have to use them again for real?"

"There's no room." The clear space of her cabin was big enough for meditation and exercise but too close for proper practice.

"We could work in the cargo hold. It's a little bigger."

"I'm worried he'll get away."

"And I'm worried you'll slice off your own ear, or mine. Let's take a few minutes to get used to these again before we go rushing in."

Ahsoka paused. " _You_ want to wait before rushing in somewhere?"

With some affront, he said, "I didn't always rush into places unprepared."

Dozens of examples came to mind. Sharing those memories would serve no purpose. This was a good decision. She did need the practice before she went in swinging weapons she hadn't touched in over half a decade. "Where's the cargo hold?"

He led her to the far side of the ship. She'd thought the thick bulkheads covered the engines and she hadn't taken the time to look. The cargo hold was a little bigger than their cabins, and was currently empty. It made a poor dojo but better than her room did.

Anakin lit his blade and saluted her. Ahsoka lit both of hers and nodded. They moved through their paces quickly, both more stiff in their motions than they had once been. She'd carried ko-sticks for the past several years. The maneuvers were similar, but the weight distribution and the resistance of the wood versus the plasma blades differed. Her muscles tensed and moved in ways they had almost forgotten. Anakin had been a gifted fighter when she'd met him. As they struck and parried, the roughness of his motions smoothed away into the more fluid style she remembered.

She loved this feeling. She'd forgotten the calming ritual of movement, attack, defend, recover, return. The younglings at the temple had been taught in the use of these blades. She'd earned her crystals to power the two in her hands now. The Force flowed through them, through her, out her fingertips, out every breath, and she felt the same flow beside her as Anakin moved through his own steps.

She was at peace.

"Ready?" he asked, but he already knew her answer.

They made their way back out into the city. Ahsoka retraced her steps. Gunray had been far across the way when she'd spotted him, and there'd been no opportunity to follow. She'd half suspected her holo of him would be her only prize at the end of this long search. Anakin seemed confident they could capture him, and he was right that no one out here would know they weren't Jedi and technically did not have even the tenuous authority their former Order might command out here. The goal was worth the attempt.

When they reached the street where she'd seen him, they started their search, following the same direction she'd seen Gunray walking with his entourage. They couldn't ask after him, not without tipping off their quarry. As they walked, she considered what they did know. Lado and his friends had called her a Jedi, and they'd been prepared for her. He'd been working for Gunray and the others. They knew she was on their trail. They might even have a second collar to match the hellish device that had almost killed her.

"You okay?"

"Fine. Just thinking this might be a bad idea."

"It's a great idea," he said. "I always have great ideas."

She stared at him, her jaw slack, a dozen bad memories fighting for prominence all at once. Anakin read her expression and gave a tiny shrug. "I often have great ideas," he amended. That was closer to the truth and she didn't argue.

Luck was with them again. They'd reached a residential area, much higher class than where they'd been on Handooine. Some of the lettering on the walls they passed was in Neimoidian script. Gunray had set himself up in luxury here away from galactic politics. Ahsoka didn't know if he was still plotting with his friends, or if he hoped to live out a quiet retirement free of the consequences of his actions, and she found she didn't care. He could face trial, and if he wanted to turn in his comrades in exchange for clemency, that would be up to the Senate. She was here to catch him, that was all.

His home was enormous, set back from the street amid other ostentatious homes. A more circumspect figure wanted by the galactic authorities would have set up in isolation. Instead, he hid in sight of other wealthy residents biding their time here in this backwater Outer Rim world. Ahsoka wondered how many of them had been part of the Separatist leadership, plotting their schemes and waiting for their fortunes to turn once more to their favor.

The two of them might have taken on more than they could handle by themselves. Her hand moved up to rub at the bactaplast covering her burn. Anakin noticed the movement and sucked in a breath. "If you want to call in backup, we can. We've got a location. We don't have to be the ones who bring him in."

"Yes we do," she said, and she headed for the door just as Gunray and four bodyguards emerged together. "Nute Gunray!" She ignored the bodyguards as they hefted their weapons. "You are a fugitive from the law. You will submit to the Republic to answer for charges of high treason and multiple war crimes."

Gunray fixed her with an annoyed stare. "Under whose authority?"

She lit her lightsabers. "Mine." Beside her, Anakin lit his own.

"Jedi," Gunray spat, and waved his hand. His guards opened fire, blaster bolts easily deflected as they advanced.. Ahsoka was careful to aim the rebounds towards the ground, not the surrounding homes. She had no evidence of any wrongdoing by his neighbors.

"Ahsoka," Anakin warned, and it was her only warning before more guards poured out of the house, and the adjacent houses. Her suspicion that he'd surrounded himself with friends had been accurate, and what had been a simple fight of five against two now looked like twenty or more against them. They flowed into a different stance, back to back as the blaster fire poured at them in a sudden rain. She stopped worrying about collateral damage and started worrying about getting out of this situation alive.

Gunray had vanished back inside his house.

"He's getting away," she said over her shoulder.

"I'd like to join him," Anakin replied, a little out of breath. It had been years since he'd done this, too. They were both out of practice, a mistake they might not live to rectify. Their foes closed in around them even as they dropped as many as they could with their own reflected fire. Defense wasn't working.

"I'll take this half dozen," she told him. "You take the other half dozen."

She didn't wait for his response before she jumped, landing between a tangle of guards. She cut down two with her lightsabers, and used a third to catch the blaster fire of his friends as they turned their weapons to her. His body made a good bludgeon to throw at a fourth. The last two fired at her between them, hitting each other as she leapt out of the way. She turned, and watched Anakin finish off the last of his attackers.

Muscles she hadn't used in years warned her she'd regret today's exercise but her blood was high with the fever of the fight, the battle-joy she'd long missed even as she knew its dangers to people like them. A Jedi dared not enjoy this roiling fire, lest it consume them all. She saw the same on Anakin's face, both the yearning pleasure and the warnings they'd grown up with tangled into a messy puddle of want and duty. Jedi fully attuned with the Force could untangle the threads and weave a peaceful passion to cloak themselves, but neither of them was a Jedi. Ahsoka's body strung between the desire to keep killing her enemies, and the desire to shove Anakin to the ground and have him right there. She saw the same plain on his face before he closed himself off.

"Inside," he said roughly, and she nodded, falling into step beside him as they ran for the door. It was barred and locked, forged from durasteel. Anakin began to melt his way in even as Ahsoka pulled back, her heart jumping as his blade bit into the metal of the door.

He didn't notice, which was for the best.

Her sabers were firm in her hands. She began to cut on the other side of the door, making an arc to meet his cut. The moment they were through they both pushed the door in with the Force.

"After you," he said.

"You're too kind." She stepped inside, lightsaber at the ready. The entry room was empty, save for what probably passed for tasteful decorations back on Cato Neimodia. Anakin came in behind her as she headed deeper into the house.

They found him in an inner room, desperately clawing at a box with one hand.

"Give it up," Anakin said. "You're done."

He was met with fire from a small blaster clutched in Gunray's grip. The box sprang open. Ahsoka saw it first: a second collar, just as she'd feared. "Stay back," he warned.

"You are under arrest," she said, stepping closer despite the terror that threatened to control her. "You will be given a fair trial."

Would he, though? Did he need one? They both knew what he'd done, what he was responsible for, along with the rest of his cronies. The war was over but the dead still cried out for justice. One swipe with her lightsabers and she could save the Republic the cost of his trial, both in credits and in reawakened pain as they sorted through the atrocities committed by the Separatists under the guidance of their Council.

The collar in his hand looked huge and menacing. She remembered the cold, remembered the sensation of slipping into death. He'd gladly lock her into that terrifying prison and watch her suffer and die. Wasn't it safer to stop him permanently now rather than risk that?

"You'll never take me alive!"

"Maybe we won't," Anakin said. "I killed Count Dooku. Master Windu killed your leader Sidious. You're not so special."

Gunray's outrage turned to fear. He brandished the collar in front of him. "Don't come any closer! You have no idea what this does to a Jedi!"

"I know what it does," said Ahsoka. "Your friends on Handooine used one on me. They're dead now, too."

He scowled in pain. "Nord was my kinsman. I will have vengeance for his death, you may count on it."

It hit her then. All her searching, all her need to find this man and the other hidden members of their dark council, all of it had been for the sake of the dead she'd left behind in the war. Fellow Jedi slaughtered in the cause of a false conflict, and too many clones to count even though she'd tried to learn their names, and friends who had fallen to other darknesses from the long shadow of pain, the way Barriss had fallen. They all had killed in the name of those who had been killed, and they perpetuated the debt-taking even now.

The war needed to end inside her, or it would never end.

She doused her blades, clipping them to her sides. "I am sorry for your loss. You are under arrest."

He lunged at her. She felt the sick-sweet of the collar's dampening field, and ducked as she swung a kick at his midriff, knocking him to the ground. He dropped the collar, which rolled away. "Anakin, take care of that."

Anakin destroyed the collar as Ahsoka bound Gunray's hands and feet.

"I'll watch him," she said. "His comm was in the front room. Contact the authorities and tell them to send a message back to Coruscant. We've captured Nute Gunray alive. And warn them his friends are probably here on Saleucami and about to skip town."

"Yes, ma'am," said Anakin.

She turned to her prisoner. "I will protect you until the proper authorities arrive, and they will protect you as you travel back to Coruscant, You will be presented with all the charges against you and given the opportunity to defend yourself in a trial more fair than the one I got. The people you hurt will have the opportunity to testify against you, and you will go to prison for a very long time. This is how the war ends."


	6. Chapter 6

They guarded Gunray's cell themselves overnight as they waited for the prisoner transport to arrive from Coruscant. Too big of a chance someone would try to free him, or to kill him before he could turn over his fellow Council members. Anakin hid his amusement that they'd met a few nights ago in a facility not much different from this one, on the other side of the force field.

He had slept much of yesterday away and was wide awake tonight. He wanted to ask Ahsoka how she felt about the end of her quest, but not here. They might be overheard by Gunray in his cell, or by the local guards who kept a respectful distance watching the two Jedi in their midst. The rest of their colleagues had been sent out to investigate the surrounding homes where Gunray's partners might be hiding. On the one hand, Anakin thought it would be a good idea for the two of them to join the hunt. On the other, they could trust no one else to guard this particular prisoner, and if he came upon another of the Separatist leaders alone, he was not sure he could walk himself back from the edge again. He wouldn't put Ahsoka in that position either. Together they were stronger, and saner.

There were many questions he wanted to ask her. Most of his queries churned behind his breastbone, hidden and sad. During the fight, he'd felt the old familiar thrill of battle, tied intimately with the thrill of other passions, and for a moment as they'd stood together among their defeated foes, he could have sworn he'd seen the same high desire on her face, felt it flowing between them in the Force-induced connection between them. He'd wanted her since he'd first seen her again, and he wanted her still after they'd given in to that attraction and parted. For that moment after the battle, he'd been sure she did want him in return.

But she'd said they were better off as friends, and he wouldn't ask her if she would change her mind. That was unfair to her.

Already he worried about who would come for Gunray, worried it might be an old friend who could read the guilt between them, worried that friend would assume Anakin had coerced Ahsoka into his bed by playing on their old relationship or had even laid the groundwork for the same back when he'd been her master. His uncomfortable anger at the similar accusation from the doctor who'd treated her injury still rested sullenly inside him, but worse by far had been the hurt on Ahsoka's face as she'd told him, and she would have to wear that pain again while explaining the truth to their well-meaning friend.

"How's your burn?" he asked after an hour of silence. Gunray had fallen into a fitful sleep behind them. 

"Healing. I should be able to remove the bactaplast tomorrow. It's going to leave a scar." Before he could apologize again, she said, "I don't mind. There's nothing shameful about scars."

"I've had some awkward conversations explaining how I got a few of mine." He flexed his metal hand. "But I see your point."

He noticed as her eyes followed the movements of his fingers. A flush hit her cheeks. He dropped his hand to his side. She'd had a memorable reaction when he'd touched her with his steel fingers and he supposed that would be embarrassing for her to think about now. A gentle sorrow moved through him. He wanted Ahsoka to stay with him, more than anything, but everything he did wound up hurting her. She was better off without him there ruining her life.

"You know," he said with a light tone to cover the growing heaviness in his heart, "you could accompany the prisoner back to Coruscant. You'd be welcomed back as a hero."

"We would, you mean."

"I'm staying on planet. There's plenty of work here. A couple of weeks and I should have plenty of enough credits to fuel the _Daystar_ for as long as I want. You go. Let the High Council appreciate the work you've done these past seven years. You could rejoin the Order. They said they'd be glad to have you back." The words tasted bitter in his mouth. He swallowed the bile with a friendly grin.

"I don't belong there." She turned away from him, looking into the cell at their sleeping prisoner. "I don't know where I belong now. This has been my mission for years."

"And you completed it. Maybe it's time you went home."

She didn't reply. She pulled her body into a resting position, awake and ready but relaxed, and said little to him for the rest of the long night.

Shortly after dawn, one of the local guards emerged from the outer corridors of the jail. "The transport has arrived."

"That was fast," said Ahsoka. "They must have sent someone already close by."

"Unknown, ma'am. Will you escort the prisoner to the ship?" The question was half a request, half fear they'd decline.

"Lead the way," said Anakin. Gunray's cell door was opened, and his hands were placed into binders. The other guards marched him out, Anakin and Ahsoka flanking them as they walked through the winding corridors of the building and out into the open air.

Anakin's senses nagged at him. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

She said nothing, only gave him a curt nod, her eyes scanning the crowded buildings surrounding them. Hiding places for snipers? Cover for an attack force? His lightsaber was at his belt. Her hands hung loose at her sides, ready to grab her own.

Gunray huddled into his own shoulders, his face darting from side to side. He expected an ambush, knowing his friends would be happy to eliminate him before he could turn them in.

The first blast was almost a relief. Anakin flowed into motion, taking point in front of where the shot had come. Ahsoka circled around to protect their prisoner from the other side. More shots came at them from all directions, and he swung his blade in time with every blast, deflecting the shots. Anakin half expected the local guards to cut and run. Instead, they stood the line, protecting their charge.

Ahsoka said, "I'll draw their fire! Get the prisoner to the transport!" Before Anakin could argue, she darted away, running headlong towards a concentrated nest of snipers hiding in a nearby alley, forcing them to focus on her. Their friends turned some of the shots away from Gunray and the guards, aiming for Ahsoka instead.

Fear, hot and tight gripped him. She'd be killed. But she would never forgive him if he let Gunray be killed after all she'd gone through to bring him to justice.

Anakin grabbed Gunray by his arm, then dragged him, running at top speed, his lightsaber their only defense as they rushed through the streets leaving the guards straggling far behind. He hoped the Republic transport was at the same shipyards where he'd left the _Daystar_ or this would be for nothing.

The welcome shape of a CR90 met his eyes as he approached the shipyard, and the even more welcome face of Master Windu waiting for him.

Anakin came to stop in front of him, panting and out of breath. He hadn't run like this in years. Gunray's heels had scraped the entire way there, leaving the skids of his shoes along their path.

Windu looked at him in open astonishment. "Skywalker? We wondered who'd captured him. The message said two Jedi."

He sucked in a breath. "Ahsoka captured him. We were ambushed bringing him here." He shoved Gunray into the arms of one of the clones flanking Windu. "I have to go help her."

"Wait," Windu said, but Anakin was already turned and headed back to Ahsoka's position, hoping against hope she was still alive and unhurt. Some of their attackers had followed him, but not all, as had been her plan.

He retraced his steps and followed the growing sounds of blaster fire. The good news was that if they were still shooting, she was probably still alive to be shot at. He came up behind two of her attackers and unceremoniously used the Force to throw them against the nearest wall. Another well-aimed ricochet turned a shot back on the shooter. There was a body in the road. One of the guards who'd stayed. Anakin used his lightsaber to cover himself and went to the stricken man, his eyes searching for Ahsoka. There. She was in her element, using her feet and elbows as much as her lightsaber.

The guard groaned. Anakin lifted him, carrying him out of range of the firefight and into the nearest house whose door was available to kick in. A family huddled behind the wall, terrified of the fight outside their window. "He's wounded," Anakin said. "Call for help."

He hurried back into the fray. Ahsoka was pinned down under heavy fire. All his other obligations completed, Anakin's focus became solely centered on reaching her. Mindful that there were innocents surrounding them, he kept the deflections high and harmless. His powers flowed easily through him, fueled now by the adrenaline of battle and by the nameless emotion he felt watching the woman across the way as she fought for her life. He easily shoved men away with the Force, lifting and dropping them stunned to the ground. His lightsaber moved like an extension of his body as he made his way to her side.

Their target long gone, a few of the snipers pulled back and ran. The others closed in. If they couldn't take down Gunray, killing a Jedi or two would be a happy consolation prize.

"Run," he told the remaining guards as he reached them. "They're not after you. The prisoner is secure."

"We have to keep the peace," said one of them, a youth who'd spent most of the night watching Anakin and Ahsoka as they'd guarded Gunray. "That's our job."

Anakin tilted his head at the surrounding buildings. "Then protect the people in these homes."

He saw the looks of gratitude as they ducked and ran for cover. He was almost to her now. A bolt came too close to him, singeing his metal arm with a burst of neural pain. A few sparks flew, and he felt his dexterity give way. He shifted his lightsaber to his other hand.

"Gunray's secure," he told her as he reached her.

"One good thing today," she said. She was favoring her right leg. He didn't have time to see if she'd been wounded, only had time to step to cover her on that side.

"Today's not bad. The weather's nice," he said, blocking another shot before slicing the blaster out of the owner's hands and shoving him back with the Force.

She made an amused noise he barely heard. "Well then it must be a grand day."

"Seems like it. Let's finish these guys off and get breakfast."

"It's a date," she said, spinning to take out two more.

He was high on the battle, and half-convinced they were about to die. "You said we shouldn't date."

"No," she said, swinging both blades in an elegant arc, " _you_ said we shouldn't date."

"I did not. I agreed with you instead of arguing with you."

"No, I agreed with you instead of arguing with you." She gave him a glare over one shoulder as they were pushed inexorably against one wall together. The battle had turned against them, and they were going to die here in the middle of a spat over who'd meant what, and thanks to the effect these fights were having on him, he was going out with a half-erection.

It would be funny if they were anywhere else.

"Do you think you can jump to the roof?"

"Not on this leg."

More blaster fire rained on them, now shooting down from the sky and Anakin prepared himself for the end. "Stay against the wall," he told her, stepping in front of her to shield her with his body. It might buy her a few extra seconds. If that was all he could offer her in this life, so be it.

He had never considered what his last words might be. "I wish we'd had this conversation yesterday," was not his first choice, but they'd have to do.

The last thing he heard before the breath-stealing tingle of a blast knocked him from his senses was Ahsoka shouting his name.

* * *

Ahsoka woke up in a firm but comfortable bed. Her eyes focused on the shapes etched into the ceiling of the room, regular ovals in a pleasing pattern. Her brain circled back from the warmth of unconsciousness into the mild headache that always accompanied waking up from a stun bolt. She'd been stunned. There'd been a battle.

Still numb, her hands moved across herself. Her leg had been tended, with neat strips applied to the injury and as her fingers moved across it, she recognized the feel of a post-surgical dressing. The bactaplasts had been changed on her burn. Her nose filled with the distant smells of bacta and the sterile cleaner common to military medical wards everywhere. Turning her head, she saw her lightsabers placed within reach on a small table. She was alone in the room.

"Anakin?" she called out, not sure if he was out of sight, or far away, or dead. She sat up, and noted she wasn't bound by any intravenous lines or chains. She'd only been stunned, and she wasn't a prisoner. The Republic forces who'd come for Gunray had joined them in the fray, and saved their lives.

Her life at least. Where was Anakin? He'd pushed her behind himself. Had he fallen to an enemy bolt? The Force collar's cold had nothing on the icy fear working its way through her veins.

The door opened. Master Windu stepped into the room. "Good morning."

She went to pull herself out of bed, but he waved his hand, encouraging her to rest as he took a seat on the room's small chair beside the bed. "Did you save us?"

"We came in to clean up, yes. The two of you had handled most of the attackers. I heard you were the one who captured Gunray. Is that true?"

"We captured him together. I think there may be others here."

"There were. We have a brig full of some of the more notable names on the Separatist Council thanks to you. We'll arrive on Coruscant in two days."

Arrive? "We left Saleucami?"

"Some time ago. You've been out for a while. You appeared to have been wounded several times in recent days."

"I was. I'm fine now, thank you." Her heart fell slowly. Master Windu was leading up to something, and she had a terrible feeling she knew what he didn't want to tell her. "What about Anakin?"

"He told us about the Force collar and how he had to remove it from you. We're taking the device back for study in case we run into another."

"He's all right?"

Windu made a face. "He's himself. 'All right' has never seemed a good description. No, he isn't injured, if that was your question. Currently he's sedated in another room."

"You said he wasn't injured. Why is he sedated?"

"He was hovering over you enough to annoy the medical droids. I'm sure he'll be pleased you're feeling better." Master Windu tilted his head. "You had other injuries besides the blaster wound and that burn on your neck."

Windu was the Grand Master of the Order, who'd come on this mission because he'd been the closest to Saleucami, she would learn later. He had his too-stringent ways, and he could not always see through deception, and both of these had been part of the reason she'd walked away from the Order. But he was never cruel, and if his care for others came across as a firm, cool distance, she'd known since early childhood that he did care, often very deeply.

"The doctor I saw yesterday found those on a scan, too. She wouldn't believe me when I said I came by the bruises willingly."

He nodded, no judgment in his eyes. "An easy mistake to make by someone who doesn't know you, or how well you know your own mind. It's an important confusion to correct."

"Confusion is a good word for it. I think I was confused for a long time." She looked at the wall, at the patterns designed as a healing balm for soldiers in too many wars. "The war was over, but it didn't feel finished. I thought if I found them, I could finally end it."

"You succeeded." Again the head tilt, and half a question.

"I did. Now I don't have a mission in front of me. That almost feels worse. It shouldn't. I should be glad Gunray and the rest are going to stand trial."

"Wars take a long time to end, even past when you think they should be over, and that the bad dreams should leave you alone." She heard introspection in his voice. He'd taken down Palpatine himself. She had never had reason to consider what that had cost him. She wondered how she'd feel now if she'd given in to her desire to strike down Gunray when she'd had that chance, and how long her own bad dreams would haunt her. 

"Yes."

"As we told you before, you are welcome to return to the Order if you so choose."

"I don't think I belong there any longer."

"I don't think so, either. I think the Force has a different destiny in mind for you, but it isn't my task to figure out what it is. That's for the two of you to decide." He stood. "Your ship is docked on ring one. As soon as you are both ready to travel, you may feel free to stay or depart. It has been good to see you again. Please don't make the next occasion such a long wait."

Anakin came into her room an hour later, his face lighting up as he saw her awake. "Hi," he said, taking her hand.

"Hi. We need to work on our communication."

"Agreed." His other hand found her face and caressed her cheek. "I'm glad you're all right."

"I'm glad you're not dead."

"Not dead is one of my favorite ways to be." He gave her a careful look. "What do we do now?"

"Don't make me decide. I just finished my life's quest. I can't think about the future yet."

"True, but I was asking more along the lines of what you'd like to do for breakfast."

Her stomach rumbled. "Breakfast sounds like a good decision no matter what we have."

"I'll ask them to send something in." His expression changed. "Ahsoka?"

"I thought you were dead. I watched a bolt hit you, and for a moment I didn't register it was a stun blast, and then I was stunned and I woke up here without you." She stared up at him, "It was one of the worst moments of my life. You'd shoved me out of the way," she broke off with a breath, "and later we need to have another conversation about you not protecting me because I'm not a kid."

"I know you're not a kid. I'm going to protect you when I can anyway. I've been told by some people," he rolled his eyes, "most frequently by my ex-wife, that I am sometimes a little too clingy when it comes to the people I love. I don't see that changing."

"Says the guy who tried to send me away to Coruscant."

"Fine. I'm working on changing. I'm not very good at it yet. You've seen what my life's like." His expression changed again, was nearly one of pain. "You'd have a better life back on Coruscant. You'd be among friends. You wouldn't be alone any more."

"Master Windu offered me the chance. I told him no."

"You deserve to be happy."

"I am." She squeezed his hand. "I'm happy when you're next to me. Even when we're fighting for our lives. Especially when we're fighting for our lives. If they hadn't stunned us, I wanted to drag you into the nearest alley and have you right there."

His eyes lit up with amusement. "So that's not just me."

"I want to go where you go," she said. "Just like you promised back on Handooine. If you want to stay as friends, we can, but I...." He silenced the rest of her words with a kiss, soft and tender.

It turned out not to be that complicated after all.

They managed to wait long enough to gather their things and return to the _Daystar_ , undocking as soon as the ship left hyperspace and sending one last hail before they set a course of their own. They waited for the blue coruscation of hyperspace to wash over the tiny cockpit that was already starting to feel like home.

Their first time had been driven by a years-long desire thirsting to be slaked. Their second went slower, mindful of her knitting wounds. His mouth pressed against the fading scrapes the collar had left, kissing away the sorrow as she shivered at each wet taste. His hands moved over her body almost in awe while she stroked the swell of his pectoral muscles before nipping at each with her fangs. This wasn't the blood-song of a fight, but a sweeter surge in her veins as his fingers found the sensitive tips of her lekku, bringing them to his face then sliding each between his lips, leaving a thrilling wet coolness behind.

His eyes lit with wonder at her as they touched, as though he drank in the sight of her face even as one warm palm moved over her breast. His hips hitched against her, not thrusting into her, but rubbing his own hard, wet tip against her aching, needy entrance in slow, deliberate circles.

This was madness, she knew, reaching to him for another deep kiss. The desire she felt for him could consume her. Another emotion shimmered inside her, one she thought perhaps she'd always felt and had never allowed herself to think about. It might be more common than was admitted for padawans to reach between their own legs and whisper their master's name in the dark. She couldn't say and would never ask. She knew they weren't supposed to love their teacher, not like this, not as though their own hearts would shatter at the thought of parting again. The only surcease to her guilt was her surety that Anakin loved her in return the way he always loved: with all his heart and despite the cost.

She eased her body against his, undulating her hips, her thighs spreading to grasp him and draw him into her with a flex of her inner muscles. Humans didn't mate this way, she'd learned. Human females didn't possess this sucking grip she'd assumed was universal, and their nerves were different, not lined up with hundreds of exposed pleasure cells experiencing every move as Anakin began the slow thrusts she wanted. She burned with heat, every inch of her body alight with sensation, and a furnace brewing in her belly as she got closer. And Anakin felt this, knew this, his unbridled pleasure rebounding inside her at the hot, slick, pulsing clutch wrapped around him tighter than any glove.

They kept nearly silent, except for whispers into each other's mouths, promises breathed into the yielding flesh of neck and cheek, and ear. The bunk creaked with their movements, but it could abide the rhythmic motion of two lovers come at last to each other through long perils and misunderstandings.

He pulled out of her with a sudden jerk. "Something wrong?" she asked, her breath thready and panting.

Anakin took her legs in his hands, spreading her thighs wide with a firm, inexorable grip. She'd have more bruises there tomorrow and she couldn't wait to see them, couldn't wait to rub her fingers across her own tender, sore flesh and relish the memory of how his fingermarks had gotten there. Holding her legs, he bent his head between them. At the first swipe of his tongue across her sensitive flesh, she gave a yelp which she muted by throwing her own wrist over her mouth. Encouraged by her muffled cries, he went on, tasting her with a fervent eagerness while she writhed and groaned until she felt her orgasm coiled up inside of her and ready to spring.

He pulled his mouth away again before she came. Ahsoka was past words, growling at him to continue, to do something. She grabbed for his shoulders but he was faster, lining up the head of his cock against her again. She clenched herself, pulling him in hard, feeling every inch of him sink into her at once, and he groaned. Pleasure spiked through him and into her, and out of her again as her nerves exploded with delight, filling her with light as he filled her, spilling into her while he mouthed her name against her cheek.

Madness, she thought, in a hazy warmth as she turned to kiss him again, but a madness worth every moment, no matter where it took them next.

* * *

Anakin woke wrapped tightly around a warm, firm body. Ahsoka's breaths barely stirred as she rested in his arms. He watched her sleeping face in the low light, his eyes tracing every curve of her markings. He wondered if he'd been in love with her since their first time, or since the collar that had almost stolen her life, or since that jail cell, or since the day he'd met her so long ago. He wondered where this was going to go, both the unknown path ahead of them and this new thing they were building between them. He wondered what she was dreaming about, if she'd ever dreamed about him during their long separation the way he'd dreamed about her.

He wondered if she loved him as much as he loved her, though he didn't wonder much. He'd felt the wash of her emotions as they'd made love again and again.

Ahsoka cracked open one eye. "Go back to sleep, Anakin."

He shifted, drawing her even closer, and closed his eyes, and slipped into another warm dream of her.


End file.
